Oil Trades Near $49 as Prices Still Capped by Sufficient Supply

Futures fell 1.3 percent. While growth in U.S. drilling has stalled and Libya’s production revival was dealt a setback by protests, rebounding output is still capping prices, according to Saxo Bank A/S. A committee co-chaired by Kuwait and Russia will examine why some participants in the deal between OPEC and other producers to reduce global supply aren’t fully implementing their cuts.

Oil in New York was unable to hold its advance above $50 a barrel last week as signs of rising global supply eroded optimism that output curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners are rebalancing the market. Compliance with cuts was 86 percent in July, according to a Bloomberg survey.

“The market has recovered strongly from its lows on signs that the market is normalizing, but further upside at this stage seems unlikely,” said Ole Sloth Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo in Copenhagen.

West Texas Intermediate for September delivery was at $48.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 63 cents, at 9:52 a.m. London time. Total volume traded was about 12 percent above the 100-day average. Prices climbed 55 cents to $49.58 on Friday, trimming the weekly loss to 0.3 percent.

Brent for October settlement dropped 70 cents to $51.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices rose 41 cents to $52.42 on Friday, reducing the weekly decline to 0.2 percent. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.62 to October WTI.
more at:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-07/oil-holds-gains-above-49-before-opec-talks-on-cut-compliance