Crude oil pries fell in Asia on Friday using the market cautious as OPEC member and major producer Venezuela reportedly faces problems making payments on bonds issued for the state oil company PDVSA is actually U.S. rig count data ahead.
On the newest York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for December delivery rose 0.11% to $52.70 a barrel, while you’re on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained was quoted down 0.08% to $59.42 a barrel. Shale oil drillers have recently pared back on new drilling programs and investors are waiting to find out whether the dip is temporary as prices remain steadily above $50 a barrel.
Payments on bonds issued by Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, plus the Venezuelan government remain a subject mark 48 hrs following the state-owned refiner and producer made good on two overdue bond payments and approved a $985 million debt payment due Friday.
Overnight, oil prices settled higher on Thursday as recent data showing an uptick in U.S. crude supplies along with a surge in domestic production was offset by growing expectations that Opec will extend its global accord to slice output.
Crude Oil prices struggled for direction as investors weighed the recent uptick in U.S. crude supplies and production against growing expectations that Opec would extend its supply-cut agreement amid bullish comments from Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Answering a matter on whether he supported extending the production cut agreement, Prince Salman said “of course” and insisted that Opec “really need to continue stabilizing the market”, fuelling investor expectations that support for prolonged cuts is expanding among Opec members.
“Many people are longing for the OPEC meeting at the conclusion of in a few days,” said Thomas Pugh, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.
In May, Opec producers accepted extend production cuts for nine months until March, but stuck to production cuts of merely one.2 million bpd agreed in November during the past year.
The bullish comments helped turn sentiment on oil prices positive amid investor concerns over recent data showing both U.S. crude supplies and domestic production jumped a couple weeks ago.
Inventories of U.S. crude rose by roughly 856,000 barrels from the week ended Oct. 20, missing expectations of any draw of two.6m barrels. That’s the primary development of five weeks.
U.S. crude production, meanwhile, surged to 9.5m barrels on a daily basis (bpd) as daily exports of crude, diesel and also other petroleum products climbed to 7.66m barrels a couple weeks ago, the EIA said Wednesday.
