Crude oil price likely to remain above $50 per barrel threshold, says report
Aderemi Ojekunle is a Businessamlive Reporter.
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Global crude oil price is likely to remain above $50 per barrel in August from its strong rebound in July, gaining 8.22 percent, according to the Financial Derivatives July economic report issued August 14, 2017.
According to the report, Brent crude staged a strong rebound in July, gaining 8.22% to close at $52.91 per barrel. The average price of Brent crude was $49.06pb, 2.44% higher than June’s average of $47.89 per barrel.
“The biggest price support was the substantial draw-downs in US inventories in the month of July as oil stockpiles shed 25.8 million barrels.
“Drilling activity also slowed, with only 10 rigs added in July, a 14-month low,” the report stated.
Analysts at Financial Derivatives, however, maintained cautious optimism that the bullish trends will persist in August.
Meanwhile, the price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, Monday, edged down by 37 cents to $51.73 per barrel, still above the $50 per barrel mark, while West Texas Intermediate, was down by 20 cents from Friday’s close to $48.62 per barrel.
Crude oil prices have been holding in a range of $40 and a bit above $50 range in the last few weeks.
Efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to drain the historic glut of oil on the market helped put a floor under the price of oil, but a resilient U.S. shale oil sector has put a limit on how high oil prices can go.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, had last week, pledged full support for the existing monitoring mechanism to fully cooperate with the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Technical Committee (JTC) and Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) in the months ahead in order to achieve the goal of reaching full conformity.