OPEC says low oil price won’t continue, may rise within a year

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Also, the world market is awash with the commodity as the OPEC exporters group refuses to cap production in a move to preserve its market share, while Iran is expected to restart pumping its own crude for shipment in 2016 after sanctions linked to its nuclear programme are lifted.

“Whether they’re going to hike rates is probably a non-issue right now…it’s more in the communications, whether they’re going to signal a bit more positivity about the USA economy”, he said, which could reassure investors about demand in the world’s largest consumer of crude oil.

In addition, analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the U.S. Energy Information Administration to report Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels in the week ended December 11.

Oil prices won’t be affected by U.S. crude exports, according to OPEC’s top official.

“The current price situation will not continue… there will be less supply coming to the market”.

Moody’s Investors Service said a potential boost in oil exports from Iran and China’s weakened economic growth both threaten to keep oil supply and demand off balance next year.

Looking further ahead, Moody’s significantly reduced its medium-term price assumptions for Brent and WTI, to USD 63 per barrel and USD 60 per barrel, respectively, saying the reductions “reflect the rating agency’s view that the supply-demand equilibrium will eventually be reached at around USD 63 per barrel for Brent, but only at the end of the decade”.

“Unwinds of oil ETF holdings could exacerbate any leg lower in prices particularly as ETF net length remains highly stretched on the long side”.

The previous year has been hard on the oil sector.

Today, the U.S.is an oil production giant, with production of more than 9.5 million barrels per day before being cut to about 8.5 million due to the drop in worldwide crude prices in the past year. The contract closed up 69 cents on Monday after earlier declining to $34.53, the lowest intraday price since February 2009. The medium-term price is $18/BOE, down from $25/BOE previously. “Storage has become a big problem” she told CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box”.

There seems to be no consensus in reports as to what might ultimately be behind the behaviour of the heavily traded spread, but it seems likely to represent divergent trends in oil supply.