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Medco expects oil prices to bounce back in 2021 following vaccination
Publicly listed oil and gas producer PT Medco Energi Internasional expects global oil prices to bounce back next year, ignited by hopes pinned on COVID-19 vaccines.
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A woman walks past a Medco Energi Internasional office in Jakarta in this file photo. (Kontan/Cheppy A. Muchlis)
Publicly listed oil and gas producer PT Medco Energi Internasional expects global oil prices to bounce back next year, ignited by hopes pinned on COVID-19 vaccines.
Medco president director Hilmi Panigoro said on Tuesday that the recent vaccine development could spur oil demand, as economic activities would go back to normal.
A total of 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech arrived in Indonesia on Sunday, awaiting emergency approval from the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM). In the meantime, United States pharmaceutical firms Pfizer Inc and Moderna announced that their respective vaccines had high efficacy rates in preventing coronavirus infection.
“The vaccines will hopefully increase oil demand by the third quarter of next year and could even make oil prices spike,” Hilmi said during a virtual media gathering.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US benchmark crude oil price tanked below zero for the first time in history in April after a sharp collapse in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, which led to a shortage of storage options.
However, the WTI and other benchmark oil prices have climbed back up since late April following the declining infection rate, US election and vaccine development. On Thursday morning Jakarta time, WTI crude traded at around $45.77 per barrel, up 0.55 percent from the previous session.
