Oil prices rise to 2-week high on dip in United States output
- by Shane Henry
- in Economy
- — Jul 4, 2017
This would increase the potential for a floor in oil prices which helped underpin sentiment and oil prices pushed higher with WTI moving above the $46.00 p/b level.
Oil pared earlier losses on July 3, resuming its longest stretch of daily rallies in more than five years after data pointed to moderating US output, though analysts said news of rising OPEC production could cap gains.
"Some market participants recognized that prices went up too strongly last week", said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst with Commerzbank. Likewise, modestly weaker demand in Q1, although preliminary data showed a subsequent improvement, exerted downward pressure on prices. "This creates risks that the normalisation in inventories will not be achieved by the time the OPEC cut ends next March".
Income could rise in the rest of the year if, as OPEC hopes, a supply glut is banished.
Still, there are still no visible signs of tightness in the market. The investment bank cited higher-than-expected production from Nigeria, Libya and a swift rebound in USA shale output. Equatorial Guinea, which became an Opec member in May, also resulted in the Opec output increase by 0.15 mbpd. Its year high is $54.45. This roughly translates to an increase of about 0.4-0.5 mbpd from these two and negates almost half of the Opec's 1.2 mbpd cut.
Plains Marketing posted prices also were up this week. Gartman said US technology will expand to Russia, Mexico, China the Middle East and Africa.
In a separate note on Wednesday, Goldman cut its WTI forecast for the next three months by $7.50 a barrel to $47.50.
On Thursday, about 6 million barrels of North Sea Brent crude were being stored on ships, down from four-month highs of as many as 9 million last week, and trading sources said it seemed now refineries were starting to take in more cargoes.
Libya's output has rebounded from only 690,000 barrels a day at the start of the year, with Sharara, the country's largest oil field, resuming production last month.
"The production and rig count cut last week has changed the short-term focus and this has made the market relative immune to news on the production front, such as the latest crank up in Libyan production", Ole Hanson, the head of commodity strategy at SaxoBank, told UPI.
July 5 - The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly crude oil inventory.
Midland basin will dominate Permian's growth in the short (0.8-1 million bpd YoY by 2018) and long term (2 million bpd; from 2 million bpd in 2017 to 4 million bpd to 2022) before tapering off from 2019.
