Oil: A review of the market situation

Oil prices rose modestly today, breaking the level of $ 47 per barrel (WTI) and $ 55 per barrel (Brent), which is associated with the weakening of the US dollar.

The sharp drop in the US dollar came amid uncertainty about US monetary policy after Wednesday the Federal Reserve lowered its estimate of economic growth and inflation, as well as forecasts of interest rate hikes. Recall dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to rise in times of a weakening dollar, as oil becomes cheaper for buyers in other currencies.

Pressure on prices had a statement by the Minister of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Nuaimi. He said that oil production in Saudi Arabia is currently about 10 million barrels of oil per day, and the kingdom sees no need to increase the volume of oil production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day. Observers are closely monitoring the volume of oil production in Saudi Arabia, as the country is the world's leading oil exporter and the most influential member of OPEC. In November, the Kingdom insisted on retaining the current aggregate limit production cartel to maintain market share, refusing to support prices by reducing the production of oil.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Al-Nuaimi also said that OPEC's decision to maintain the previous limit production had any mysterious reasons. According to him, OPEC may lose market share in the case of production cuts.

As investors continued to analyze the report Friday from the company Baker Hughes. It was reported that last week in the United States ceased to operate another 56 rigs, their total number dropped to 1069. The number of oil drilling decreased by 41 and totaled 825. displace drilling primarily in Texas - it ceased to operate 36 facilities, 19 of them - in the pool Permian, which produces oil shale. During the year the number of drilling on the two largest US shale basins - Permian and Eagle Ford - has fallen by almost half. The total number of drilling in the country for the year fell by 40%.

Impact on oil prices have also data information company Genscape Inc. Earlier Monday, the company reported that for the week that ended on March 20, at the largest oil reserves in the United States Cushing terminal increased less than in previous weeks. A week earlier at the terminal stocks rose by 2.9 million. Barrels - up to 54.4 million. Barrels.

May futures for US light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to 46.24 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

May futures price for North Sea petroleum mix of Brent rose 37 cents to 55.52 dollars a barrel on the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures Europe.