By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Oil was up Friday morning in Asia, with some industries beginning to switch fuel from the . It is still uncertain if the U.S. will ever release oil from its strategic reserve for now.

The price of oil rose by 1.11% to $82.86 at 11:48 ET (03:48 GMT), and then jumped 1.19% up to $79.23. Brent and WTI futures both rose 1.1% Thursday after resuming rallies and will jump 4% next week.

Vivek Dahar, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank said that “Oil prices have lifted following the U.S Energy Department’s statement that it does not plan to tap into U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves to cool the rally” in a note.

According to Reuters, a source from the Department of Energy told Reuters, however, that the U.S. Department of Energy did not consider tapping into the strategic oil reserve at this point.

Overall, the week was a good one for black oil, due to an increase in gas prices and a shift to oil for power generation. OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), also decided that it would continue its plan to increase supply by 400,000 barrels daily in November 2021. This decision was made earlier this week.

Investors must be alert for the potential rise in oil prices and fuel switching to gasoline.

“An acceleration on gas-to oil switching could boost crude-oil demand used to generate electricity this coming northern hemisphere Winter,” ANZ commodities analyst said. He also stated that U.S. distillate stocks (which include diesel and ) are at their lowest point since 2000.

Analysts at JP Morgan stated in a note they had not heard of any significant European gas-to oil switching. The note stated that the 750,000 barrels of daily gas-to oil switching demand in normal winter conditions may be significantly higher than our estimates.