Oil prices slumps on Tuesday, December 2, after hitting mid-2015 highs in early trading, as major pipelines in Libya and the UK restarted and U.S production soared to the highest in more than four decades.
It was the first time since January 2014 that the two crude oil benchmarks opened the year above $60 per barrel, buoyed by large anti-government rallies in Iran and ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC and Russia.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 traded 20 cents lower at around $60.22 a barrel by 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT). In early trading WTI hit $60.74, the highest since June 2015.
Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark, were down 53 cents, or 0.8 percent at $66.34 a barrel. The session high of $67.29 was the highest since May 2015.
The spread between U.S. crude and Brent WTCLc1-LCoc1 hit the narrowest in nearly two weeks.
The 450,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity Forties pipeline system in the North Sea returned to full operations on Dec. 30 after an unplanned shutdown.
Repairs have been finished on a Libyan oil pipeline damaged in a suspected attack last week and production is restarting gradually, engineers said.
“The resolution of the North Sea pipeline issue is having the expected result that the Brent-WTI spread is narrowing today,” David Thompson, executive vice-president at Powerhouse, an energy-specialized commodities broker in Washington.
Thompson added that traders have been returning to work from the holidays, boosting volumes.
“Despite the day’s price weakness, both Brent and WTI remain in solid, long-term bullish trends – $58.95 is nearby support on WTI front-month futures and $65.60 is the corresponding support on front-month Brent futures,” Thompson said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader on Tuesday accused the country’s enemies of stirring unrest, as the death toll rose to 21 from anti-government demonstrations that began last week.
Iran is OPEC’s third largest crude producer. Iranian oil industry and shipping sources said protests have had no impact so far on oil production or exports.
Oil markets have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The cuts started in January 2017 and are scheduled to cover all of 2018.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories have fallen by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, to 431.9 million barrels.
Strong demand growth, especially from China, has also been supporting crude.
However, rising U.S. production, which is on the verge of breaking through 10 million bpd, has tempered the bullish outlook, Reuters reports.
