© Reuters. An oil tanker sails through the Gulf of Nakhodka near the city of Nakhodka in Russia on August 12, 2022. Photo: Tatyana Mail/Reuters.
HOUSTON (Reuters) – It rose on Monday, rebounding from earlier losses, as investors assessed Russia’s plans to cut crude production and concerns about short-term demand ahead of the release of US inflation data on Tuesday.
April crude futures rose 22 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 86.61 a barrel, while US crude futures rose 42 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $80.14 a barrel.
“As China reopens, we will see more demand, and Russia and OPEC have the same supply or less, which means (the trend) is bullish,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group.
On Friday, prices rose to their highest levels in two weeks after Russia, the third largest oil producer in the world, said it would cut crude production in March by 500,000 barrels per day, or about 5 percent of production, in response to Western restrictions on its exports that were imposed. Because of its war on Ukraine.
UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said on Monday that the oil market is balanced and that he does not see what necessitates holding an early meeting of the OPEC + group of producing countries.
Both crude futures rose by more than eight percent last week, supported by optimism about a recovery in demand in China after the lifting of anti-Covid restrictions in December.
Concerns about supplies eased somewhat as a tanker sailed from the port of Ceyhan loaded with Azerbaijani crude oil on Monday, the first shipment of Azeri crude since the devastating earthquake in the region on the sixth of February.
The port is a storage and loading point for pipelines (TADAWUL:) that transport oil from Azerbaijan and Iraq.
Also on the supply side, the US Energy Information Administration said on Monday that US shale oil production in the seven largest basins is expected to rise in March to an all-time high.
She explained that shale oil production in the region is expected to increase by 74,000 barrels per day, to a record level of 9.36 million barrels per day.
(Prepared by Doaa Muhammad for the Arabic Bulletin)
