There was a slight change noticed in global oil prices on Thursday to erase some of the losses that have been gained earlier. This comes after the operator of the British Forties pipeline in the North Sea said the line was expected to be re-launched in early January after a series of repairs during the Christmas period. Forties is the largest producer of crude oil in the North Sea area, which is particularly supportive of the global Brent, an index of oil trading in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Analysts believe that the main feature of today’s trade is the ability of the complex to absorb reports that the planned North Sea pipeline will be restarted.
Brent crude futures rose by20 cents or 0.3%, and traded at $64.76 a barrel, while the world crude oil “WTI” rose 24 cents, or 0.4%, to reach $58.33 dollars a barrel.
Despite the slight rise in Thursday’s trading, both indices traded at their highest level since December 12. “On the basis of current estimates, the company expects to gradually return the pipeline to normal rates at the beginning of 2018″, the Swiss pipeline company Ineos said in a statement on Thursday.
The pipeline, which carries about 450,000 bpd of crude oil to the UK, and one third of Britain’s total natural gas production, has been closed after a crack was found in one of its land sections. Oil prices were partly supported by a fall back in US crude inventories, but fell through rapid production of around 10 million bpd, a level surpassed only by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Crude oil prices rose by about 1% in previous sessions after official data showed US crude inventories fell 6.5 million barrels to 436 million barrels, the lowest it has been in 2 years.
The energy minister of Saudi Arabia stated that a larger amount of time would be required, however, in order to curb global supply growth, which emerged from a strong increase in global production in the years prior to 2015. “We expect the first few months of 2018 to be either flat or a build (in inventories), as it is typically the case with the seasonality in the oil market” Khalid al-Faleh told Reuters on Wednesday.
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