Brent crude oil briefly reached 2019 highs above $65 per barrel on Friday, as OPEC-led supply cuts and the announcement of a higher-than-expected cut by Saudi Arabia this week encouraged investors. <\/p>\n
The international benchmark for oil prices rose as high as $65.10, pushing past $65 for the first time this year. It fell back to $64.75 by 0850 GMT, up 18 cents or 0.28 percent from the last close. <\/p>\n
Brent is near a three-month high and set for a more than 1 percent gain on the week.<\/p>\n
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $54.50 per barrel, up 9 cents from their last settlement.<\/p>\n
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with allies led by Russia made voluntary production cuts beginning last month aimed at tightening the market.<\/p>\n
Top exporter and de facto OPEC leader Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would cut over half a million barrels per day (bpd) more in March than the deal called for, sending prices surging.<\/p>\n
Prices were also buoyed by the partial closure of Saudi Arabia’s Safaniya, its largest offshore oilfield with a production capacity of more than 1 million bpd.<\/p>\n
The shutdown occurred about two weeks ago, a source said, and it was not immediately clear when the field would return to full capacity.<\/p>\n
“Brent should average $70 per barrel in 2019, helped by voluntary (Saudi, Kuwait, UAE) and involuntary (Venezuela, Iran) declines in OPEC supply,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note.<\/p>\n
It also said it expected a drop of 2.5 million bpd in OPEC supply in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to a year earlier.<\/p>\n
But faltering economic growth is also a concern, with signs of a slowdown now abundant in Europe, Asia and the United States.<\/p>\n
“Our macroeconomic view remains firmly bearish,” commodities brokerage Marex Spectron said.<\/p>\n
Surging U.S. output may also undermine OPEC’s efforts to tighten the market.<\/p>\n
U.S. crude production rose by more than 2 million bpd last year, to 11.9 million bpd, making the United States the world’s biggest oil producer.<\/p>\n
Most analysts expect U.S. output to rise past 12 million bpd soon, and perhaps even hit 13 million bpd by the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brent crude oil briefly reached 2019 highs above $65 per barrel on Friday, as OPEC-led supply cuts and the announcement of a higher-than-expected cut by Saudi Arabia this week encouraged investors. The international benchmark for oil prices rose as high as $65.10, pushing past $65 for the first time this year. It fell back to $64.75 by 0850 GMT, up 18 cents or 0.28 percent from the last close. Brent is near a three-month high and set for a more than 1 percent gain on the week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $54.50 per barrel, up 9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oil-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}