WTI prints fresh cycle highs through $72

The price of a barrel of oil on Thursday was moving to fresh multi-year highs.

Oil prices rose nearly 2% to their highest in more than two years backed by expectations of future demand.

A call from Vitol Chief Executive Russell Hardy rallied the bulls, calling for oil prices to keep above $70 a barrel with demand expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2022.

The CEO of the firm sees the price of oil staying between $70 and $80 for the duration of the rest of this year.

Hardy was explaining that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) keep supply discipline, even as Iran's exports may resume if the United States rejoins a nuclear agreement with Tehran.

"We have had that stock draws for a couple months, the market is heading in the right direction," Hardy said in an interview with the FT Commodities Global Summit.

Meanwhile, analysts polled by Reuters are looking for crude stocks in the US to sink for a fourth week in a row. Industry data is due at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, followed by official figures on Wednesday morning.

All eyes on the Fed

Additionally, data on Tuesday showed that Retail Sales dropped more than expected last month but large upward revisions to the March and April data provided some offset.

Moreover, the Producer Price Index data also indicated a stronger-than-expected uptick in inflation as the covid vaccinations enable the US population to spend their way out of the COVID-19 restrictions.

This comes ahead of the two-day US Federal Reserve meeting that started on Tuesday.

Traders are on the lookout for the debate about how and when to start tapering which could give some life that greenback and stall the black gold's advance in the meantime.