Energy

Oil prices firmed by about 2% on Wednesday on hopes OPEC and its allies will delay a planned increase in oil output and after Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine was more effective than previously reported.

The Trump administration's final sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico generated nearly $121 million in high bids on Wednesday, an improvement from the last government auction held just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to depress world demand for fuel.

U.S. crude stocks and gasoline inventories rose while distillate inventories fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Oil companies have asked security services to tighten surveillance as violent anti-police brutality protests and the expected sacking of hundreds of workers worsen desperation in the region, industry sources told Reuters.

U.S. environmental activists are heaping pressure on Democratic president-elect Joe Biden to avoid cabinet appointees with fossil fuel ties, with one group on Tuesday slamming his pick of a congressman who received donations from the oil and gas industry.

China's commercial oil stockpiling sector, which emerged as a key swing buyer of crude as prices plunged earlier this year, is setting plans to grow again in 2021, supporting a further boost in imports.

OPEC and its allies see oil inventories declining further in 2021 should producers extend supply curbs for three months or more, a confidential document seen by Reuters shows, supporting the case for a tighter policy on crude output next year.

Global container shipping rates have surged to records on a spike in restocking demand in the United States and Europe, container scarcity at export hubs, and changes in freight flows because of the coronavirus pandemic, shipping sources said.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a new license to Chevron Corp , the last major U.S. oil company still operating in Venezuela, giving it until June 3 to wind down its joint ventures in the OPEC member nation.