US crude prices rise on reports of supply decline

Benchmark Brent for November was up 1.00 a barrel at 50.08 by 1445 GMT.

At a time when low oil prices are hurting USA energy producers, a report from the Congressional Budget Office finds authorizing US crude oil exports under Barton’s bill would increase the price of US crude oil by around $2.50 per barrel during a period ending in 2025.

Oil prices are also being given a continued boost from the USA jobless numbers on Friday that pushed back expectations for a rate rise by the Federal Reserve to next year, amid a dearth of data early this week, said AvtarSandu, senior commodities manager at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

The expected global demand for oil has been raised by 100,000 barrels to 1.41 million barrels per day.

“I see the first mixed signs for recovery of oil prices”, van Beurden said at the two-day gathering that concludes Wednesday.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 1.9 million barrels last week, according to the EIA, and are now above the upper limit of the five-year average range.

The price gap could narrow under the scenario of “an improving supply-demand balance in the USA, where the economy has remained robust but the lower oil price has curtailed shale-oil exploration and production”, said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

Oil’s gain halted above $46 a barrel before US government data forecast to show crude stockpiles in the world’s largest consumer expanded for a second week.

Notably, America’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reckons oil output in the states will reduce next year to 8.86mln barrels per day, from an estimated average of 9.25mln bpd for 2015. Demand is expected to rise 270,000 bbl/d to 95.2 MMbbl/d, up 0.3% from September’s forecast due in part to an outlook for stronger demand growth from China.

President Barry Russell called on President Barack Obama to reconsider his position, as outlined by a White House policy announcement today, and direct the U.S. Department of Commerce to lift the trade restrictions on American crude oil exports. At its session high, Brent was up more than $1; then it turned negative before edging slightly higher. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 0.3 per cent at $US47.93 a barrel.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri, speaking at a conference in London Tuesday, said oil prices are set to rebound as steep cuts in global oil investments crimp supplies. The weekly production data (below) have shown a steady decline this year.