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Mettis Global News
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Oil prices trade high despite increasing US output

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Oil markets have seen a rebound in their prices despite a bearish forecast from IEA. The recent uptick in prices have been a result of the Forties Pipeline was closed off due to a maintenance on hairline crack that was reported earlier.

There has been relatively much less trading in oil markets since the last Friday as Brent continues to trade in a narrow band. The price movement has been limited within the narrow range of 63.00 – 63.91 per barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.30 a barrel at 0319 GMT, up 14 cents from their last settlement.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.49 a barrel, up 8 cents.

Prices have been lent most support from the Forties Pipeline Shutdown, after OPEC amped up her efforts to voluntarily cut supplies from the market with partnership from non-OPEC members and Russia.

Threatening to undermine the OPEC-led efforts to tighten markets is U.S. crude production, which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd. This means that the US is soon to become one of the major oil exporters in the world approaching Russia and Saudi Arabia which are currently pumping around 11 and 10 million bpd respectively.

Last week, the International Energy Agency made a lot of OPEC brows furrow when it warned that 2018 may not be a very happy new year for the cartel. U.S. shale supply, the IEA said in its December Oil Market Report, is set to grow more than OPEC has estimated and this could be the undoing of the production cut that boosted prices this year.

Posted on: 2017-12-19T12:26:00+05:00