Oil prices crept up on Thursday amid ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts and US sanctions against exporters Venezuela and Iran, but gains were capped by record US crude output and rising commercial fuel inventories.
Brent crude futures were at $66.12 per barrel at 0757 GMT, up 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their last close.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $56.24 per barrel, up 2 cents.
Prices are being supported by efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other countries – a grouping known as ‘OPEC+’ – to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, a strategy aimed at tightening markets.
“In our view, OPEC’s strategy is to rebalance the market as quickly as possible and exit the cuts by the end of June in order to grow production alongside shale producers in the second half of this year,” US investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a note on Wednesday.
US sanctions against the oil industries of OPEC members Iran and Venezuela have also had an impact, traders said.
Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA this week declared a maritime emergency, citing trouble accessing tankers and personnel to export its oil amid the sanctions.
Within the US sanctions against Iran, Washington granted its biggest buyers – mostly in Asia – waivers when the measures were re-introduced in November 2018 that would allow them to buy limited amounts of crude for another 180 days.
Published in Daily Times, March 8th 2019.