World oil prices fall
By Sara Israfilbayova
World oil prices show mixed dynamics on Friday, as investors react to news about delays in deliveries from Venezuela and wait for statistics on drilling activity in the U.S.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.6 percent to $76.89 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange after closing almost 2 percent higher Thursday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were trading down 0.4 percent at $65.69 a barrel, according to Wall Street Journal.
Support for quotations is provided by news about problems with the supply of “black gold” from Venezuela. The media reported with reference to sources that the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is almost a month behind the plan of oil supplies to its customers. According to the agency, the constant delays exacerbate the degree of oil production reduction in the country and may violate the terms of the PDVSA supply contracts.
Oil production in Venezuela reached a minimum level amid the
economic and political crisis - according to OPEC, in April the
country produced 1.49 million barrels per day.
Now investors are waiting for the publication of the data of the
oil and gas service company Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE) on
the number of oil and gas drilling rigs in the U.S.
According to the results of the previous week, which ended on June 1, the number of oil rigs in the U.S. increased by two, or by 0,2 percent - to 861 units. And the total number of oil and gas drilling rigs increased in annual terms by 144 pieces, or 1.2 times.
OPEC and a number of non-member countries agreed at the end of 2016 in Vienna to reduce their oil production by a total of 1.8 million barrels per day from October 2016.
The implementation of the agreement has started from the beginning of 2017 and has been twice extended, most recently - until the end of 2018.
The next meeting of the ministerial monitoring committee of OPEC + will be held on June 21 in Vienna. It will be followed by a meeting of the OPEC countries on June 22 and a meeting of all 24 OPEC member countries on June 23, at which quotas for production reduction can be revised.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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