{"id":1287,"date":"2019-07-11T18:20:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2019-07-12T06:34:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T06:34:56","slug":"oil-prices-reach-highest-levels-in-6-weeks-and-opec-continues-supply-cuts-until-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/oil-prices-reach-highest-levels-in-6-weeks-and-opec-continues-supply-cuts-until-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices reach highest levels in 6 weeks and OPEC continues supply-cuts until 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oil prices reached their highest level in six weeks on\nThursday as oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated before the storm,\nwhile an incident with a British tanker in the Middle East highlighted the\nexisting tensions in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brent crude futures reversed early losses and rose 40 cents\nto $67.41 a barrel. Earlier in the session, oil hit its highest level since May\n30 at $67.65, after closing Wednesday up 4.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WTI crude futures rose 33 cents to $60.76 a barrel, soon\nafter hiting their highest levels since May 23 at $60.94. Oil gained 4.5% in\nthe previous session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a day after Iran warned the United Kingdom that it would\nface “consequences” for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, three\nIranian ships tried to block the passage of a British ship run by BP across the\nStrait of Hormuz, the British government said. They then withdrew, after\nreceiving warnings from a British warship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened was partially expected. We pointed out last\nweek that Iran was likely to do something of the sort,\u201d oil market analysts\nsaid. \u201cThey might have created a little bit of disturbance, but nothing came\nout of it. For now, we are in the process of intimidation and psychological\nwarfare … To have a strong price reaction you need something to really\nhappen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oil prices were also supported by a drop in US stocks. The\nUS Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US crude inventories fell 9.5\nmillion barrels in the week ending July 5, more than 3.1 million barrels that\nwas predicted by analysts as refinery production increased. US oil producers on\nWednesday cut about a third of their production in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of\nthe storm, which what might be one of the first severe storms the Atlantic\nhurricane season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen production platforms and four platforms have been\nevacuated in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, according to a US regulatory\nagency, where oil companies have moved the workers to safety before a storm which\nis expected to become a hurricane by Friday. “There is nothing like an\nearly start to the hurricane season to support oil prices, but looking under\nthe hood of the EIA data, it paints an even rosier picture for US oil markets,”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US production rose again after dropping a little from their record\nlevels, according to the US intelligence agency. Production rose last week to\n12.3 million barrels per day. Rising levels of US shale production, declining\nglobal economic momentum and the existing trade uncertainties will limit the\nbullish gains of crude oil futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)\nsaid on Thursday that global demand for crude would fall next year as more\ncompetitors would begin to pump more, signaling a return to surplus despite the\nOPEC-led agreement to cut supplies. OPEC released its first forecasts for 2020\nin one of their reports, stating that they expect the world will need 29.27\nmillion barrels of crude oil per day from its 14 members next year, down 1.34\nmillion barrels per day from this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline in demand for OPEC crude\nhighlights the continued boost that OPEC’s policy to support prices is\ngiving the United States and other competitors. US President Donald Trump is\nlikely to give more space to continue the sanctions imposed on OPEC members\nIran and Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPEC also expected global oil demand to rise at the same\npace this year and that the world economy would expand at the pace that we saw this\nyear, despite slowing growth in the United States and China. “The 2020\nforecast assumes that no further downside risks materialize, particularly that\ntrade-related issues do not escalate further,\u201d OPEC declared regarding their\nforecasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPEC and its allies renewed last week the agreement to cut\nsupply until March 2020, citing the need to avoid accumulation of stocks that\ncould affect prices. OPEC also said its oil production in June fell by 68,000\nbpd to 29.83 million bpd, higher than the forecast for 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oil prices reached their highest level in six weeks on Thursday as oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated before the storm, while an incident with a British tanker in the Middle East […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,4],"tags":[90,42,36,34,114,48,24,41,44,43,72,45,109,115],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}