The Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price is up 0.9% in afternoon trade on Friday.
At the time of writing, shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) oil and gas stock are changing hands for $37.95 apiece.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.3% at this same time.
Investors look to be bidding up the Woodside share price amid another leg-up in the oil price, which sees crude trading at three-month highs.
What’s lifting the oil price?
Brent crude oil gained overnight, currently trading for US$85.25 per barrel. That’s up from US$74.65 per barrel just one month ago.
The oil price, and by connection the Woodside share price, received another boost courtesy of OPEC+.
This came amid news that Saudi Arabia and Russia both pledged to extend their production cuts into September.
Saudi Arabia continues to do most of the heavy lifting in supporting the oil price. Atop extending its one million barrel per day production cuts into next month, the kingdom left the door open for even steeper cuts ahead if required.
Commenting on OPEC’s falling output, Charu Chanana, market strategist at Saxo Capital Market said (quoted by Bloomberg), “These supply cuts are finally tightening the oil market, especially at the time of peak summer demand.”
Also driving the oil price higher and offering tailwinds for the Woodside share price was a record drop in crude stockpiles in the United States, where inventories fell by some 17 million barrels.
And there appears to be no shortage of demand for the black gold.
According to Goldman Sachs, July saw the world burn through a record amount of oil.
The voracious demand for oil amid tightening supplies could bode well for Woodside in the months ahead.
ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ), for example, is forecasting Brent could trade at US$100 per barrel by Christmas time.
Woodside share price snapshot
With today’s intraday lift factored in, the Woodside share price is up just over 20% in a year.
