Global oil prices rose on Friday, but that wasn’t enough to offset losses earlier in the week, as traders worried about a rebound in Libyan crude supplies and Donald Trump’s global trade disputes.
These concerns outweighed concerns about tighter crude supply and shrinking spare output capacity among producers.
In New York, August West Texas Intermediate crude rose 69 cents, or 1%, to $US71.02 a barrel after seeing prices briefly under $US70 a barrel. US crude futures lost 4% over the week.
In Europe September Brent crude, the international marker crude added 94 cents, or 1.3%, to $US75.41 a barrel. Brent lost 3%. Driving that fall was the 6.9% slide in Brent futures on Wednesday alone. Services group, Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active oil rigs in the US was unchanged last week at 863 after a rise of 5 the previous week and two steady weeks before that.
The total active US rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, increased by 2 to 1,054, according to Baker Hughes.
Also influencing sentiment last week – news of a rebound in output from Libya, a big fall in US stocks, and other news that the US Energy Information Administration had lifted its 2019 production forecast for the US to close to 12 million barrels a day.
Libya might be able to boost export sales by up to 400,000 barrels a day, which is it happens would help offset lower production from Venezuela. US stocks fell by 12.6 million-barrel for the week ended July 6. That was more than double the 4.8 million-barrel decline expected by analysts.
US production remained steady on 10.90 million barrels a day for the 4th week in a row.
Saudi Arabia’s crude-oil production rose to 10.42 million barrels a day in June, up 405,400 barrels a day from May, according to the monthly production report from OPEC.
The EIA said in a separate report that US crude-oil production is set to average 11.8 million barrels a day in 2019, the EIA said in its monthly short-term report published Tuesday.
Output in 2018 will average 10.79 million barrels a day, a forecast unchanged from a month ago. Production this year has so far averaged 10.484 million barrels a day, 14% more than a year ago. So there will have to be a big surge in the next month or so to reach the EIA forecast average for this year.
