Offshore staff
LONDON – Oil prices rebounded on Tuesday, Feb. 14 after concerns over rising US shale production caused a dip in prices to begin the week.
Reuters reported that Brent was up 80 cents to $56.39/bbl, and WTI was up 70 cents to $56.63 after falling 2% on Monday.
Prices rose again due to curbed output levels fromOPEC and other exporters, such as Russia, however the report pointed out that the rising production levels responsible for yesterday’s pricing decline continued to prevent any meaningful gains outside of the $5/bbl ranges the two trading benchmarks have seen since December.
Ramped-up production from the US is “undermining these (OPEC’s) efforts,” the Reuters report said.
TheUS Energy Information Administration reported on Monday in its monthly Drilling Productivity Report that output from seven major shale plays in the US would rise 80,000/b/d from February to March. Production from the Permian alone was said to increase by 70,000 b/d over the period.
“The usually fairly volatile oil price has barely budged for two months, the reason being conflicting dynamics in the market,” Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN AMRO Bank in Amsterdam, was quoted as saying in the article.
02/14/2017