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Crude prices continue to grow

10 January 2018 15:02 (UTC+04:00)
Crude prices continue to grow

By Sara Israfilbayova

World oil prices rise on Wednesday morning after the publication of the data of the American Petroleum Institute (API) on the reserves of “black gold” in the U.S., gaining a foothold on the record levels achieved the day before.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.44 a barrel, 0.8 percent above their last settlement. Earlier prices rose to as much as $63.53, the highest since December 9, 2014.

Brent crude futures were at $69.11 a barrel, 0.4 percent above their last close. Most market participants see the price high that day as an outlier and are measuring the gain as the most since Dec. 5, 2014, when prices rose to as high as $69.82, according to Reuters.

The rise of oil prices to the maximum levels on January 9 reflected the investors’ reaction to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) forecast, according to which the average price of the Brent barrel in 2018 will be $59.74 compared to $57.26 in the December forecast, and the average price of WTI - $55.33, against the previous forecast of $52.77 per barrel.

On January 10, oil prices were supported by API data. The organization reported that oil reserves in the U.S. for the week ended on January 5, decreased by 11.19 million barrels, which is the strongest decline since September 2016. At the same time, analysts had expected the figure to decrease by only 3.9 million barrels. Thus, stocks fell to 414.3 million.

Experts expect that commercial oil reserves in the U.S. (excluding the strategic reserve) for the week ended on January 5 fell by 3.89 million barrels, or 0.9 percent - to 420.61 million barrels.

In November 2016, the OPEC summit was held in Vienna, where OPEC members reached an agreement on reducing oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day. In December 2016 was a meeting of oil producers outside the OPEC. Following the meeting, was signed an agreement to reduce oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 2017.

OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

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