Oil prices rose to tꦗheir highest level 🎃this year on Wednesday, and odds are they’ll climb even higher this summer, according to Bank of America (BofA) Securities analysts. 

Brent crude futures contracts traded just cents shy of $90 a barrel on Wednesday morning. The price of Brent’s American counterpart, West Texas Intermediate,🧸 cros✅sed $86 for the first time since October. 

Prices have been buoyed this year by production cuts totaling 2.2 million barrels per day by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Co🔯untries (OPEC) and its non-OPEC allies. The group, dubbed OPEC+, decided on Wednesday to maintain those cuts.

On top of that, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:geopolitical tensions have both curbed supply and increased demand. Attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea have disrupted supply and, by lengthening global trade routes, boosted oil demand by an estimated 150,000 barrels per day. And Ukraini🌳an attacks on Russia's refining infrastructure are threatening to reduce the supply of fuel.

At the same time, robust U.S. econo📖mic data points to stronger-than-expected demand throughout the summer. 

As the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Federal Reserve continues to monitor economic indicators to ♏decide whether to cut interest rates later this year, the BofA analysts predicted that "lower interest rates and easier financial conditions will support rising commodity prices into summer."

All these factors could lead to an oil defici🐎t of up to 450,000 barrels per day in the second and third quarters, Bank of America analysts predict. “Thus, we increase our average Brent and WTI price forecast fo𝄹r 2024 to $86 and $81/bbl [a barrel], respectively, and see prices peaking at around $95/bbl this summer,” the analysts wrote.

BofA’s warning echoes that of the International Energy Agency, which surprised markets last month when it predicted global supply would 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:fall short of demand by an average of 300,000 ဣbarrels per day this year.