By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Oil was up Wednesday morning in Asia, continuing a rally after data showed . The COVID-19 curbs have eased travel demand, which is giving fuel demand an added boost.

The price rose 0.39% to $85.11 at 12:18 PM ET (5:18 GMT) and climbed 0.06% up to $84.20.

Tuesday’s showed a draw of 2.5 million barrels for the week to Nov. 5. Investing.com forecasts a 1.9 million barrel build. However, a 3.594 million barrel build was reported in the week before.

Investors await the announcement, expected later today.

“Supplies are tight with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries sticking to its guns,” Phillip Futures in Singapore senior commodities manager Avtar Sandu told Reuters, in reference to the recent agreement between OPEC and allies (OPEC+) to maintain an output growth of 400,000 barrels per day in December.

The growth of air travel also increases oil demand, and “I still see a bull charging on; it might be taking a break now, but (if there’s) any small spark, it might just continue its march,” said Sandu.

Russel Hardy CEO Vitol Group confirmed that the market is tight. On Tuesday, he stated that the demand for oil had returned to preCOVID-19 levels. The demand will exceed in the first quarter (2022).

“The possibility of a spike to $100 per barrel is clearly there,” Hardy told the Reuters Commodities Summit.

The EIA has provided a brief-term outlook that gasoline prices will fall in the coming months. This outlook will determine whether President Joe Biden plans to withdraw oil from his Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which has seen prices rise in recent months.

“The EIA report… does curb concerns that the U.S. will release oil from its SPR,” Commonwealth Bank analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note.