That’s the big question now, especially among those looking to lock in profits after picking up shares of companies like Crescent Point, Canadian Natural Resources, Baytex Energy and Suncor. “And I really think it will be so”. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
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Kuwait and Iraq are among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that plan to meet with other major producers on April 17 in Doha for talks about a freeze.
“In a period of two months, oil produced in U.S oil rigs has been declining.”[Kuwait] seems to think that a production freeze deal is possible even without Iran”, Tim Evans, energy futures specialist at Citi Futures, told MSNBC.
Goldman maintains that oil market balancing will required continued low prices, and gives a 2016 second-quarter price forecast of $35 per barrel.
It said: “There are already signs that this is happening: in the United States, we expect production this year to fall by 530 kb/d, and we have downgraded our 2016 outlook for Brazil, Colombia and others”.
U.S. WTI crude also eased on Monday, falling to $39.50 a barrel, down 22 cents from the previous session.
Prices are likely to remain in a range of $36 to $42, McGillian said. Production from these countries fell in February by 350 kb/d. But it hasn’t fallen sufficiently to relieve the global glut of crude.
“It really flies in the face of what individual countries are saying on a week-to-week basis”.
Before the sanctions were introduced, Iran exported 2.3 million barrels of oil a day.
The Bloomberg Dollar index, which tracks the currency against major peers, dropped 0.5 per cent to the lowest since June.
“These guys need the revenue, and there’s not a lot of cohesion anymore within OPEC, much less outside of OPEC”.
“A production freeze at recent production levels would not accelerate the rebalancing of the oil market” and cuts make little sense because they would benefit rival producers, they said.
Brent was lifted by production outages in the North Sea and West Africa, as well as by hopes that a meeting of exporters planned for April 17 would result lead to an agreement to rein in ballooning overproduction that sees at least one million barrels per day pumped in excess of demand.
But, earlier this month, India reportedly agreed to buy a monthly haul of 400,000 barrels a day from Iran starting in April, which would easily bring Iran’s overseas sales above its short-term target.
The commercial oil reserves also fell 4.9 million barrels in volume in the country last week to 529.9 million barrels, although experts expected increase by 3.15 million barrels up to 537.95 million barrels in that period.
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“Global supply hasn’t been extremely affected”, Bornaee said.
