Brent oil briefly hits $65 as production cuts fuel 2019 high

Reuters  |  LONDON 

By Noah Browning

The international benchmark for rose as high as $65.10, pushing past $65 for the first time this year. It fell back to $64.75 by 0850 GMT, up 18 cents or 0.28 percent from the last close.

Brent is near a three-month high and set for a more than 1 percent gain on the week.

U.S. Intermediate futures were at $54.50 per barrel, up 9 cents from their last settlement.

The Organization of the Exporting Countries along with allies led by made voluntary production cuts beginning last month aimed at tightening the market.

Top exporter and de facto OPEC said on Tuesday it would cut over half a million barrels per day (bpd) more in March than the deal called for, sending prices surging.

Prices were also buoyed by the partial closure of Saudi Arabia's Safaniya, its largest offshore oilfield with a production capacity of more than 1 million bpd.

The shutdown occurred about two weeks ago, a source said, and it was not immediately clear when the field would return to full capacity.

"Brent should average $70 per barrel in 2019, helped by voluntary (Saudi, Kuwait, UAE) and involuntary (Venezuela, Iran) declines in OPEC supply," Lynch said in a note.

It also said it expected a drop of 2.5 million bpd in OPEC supply in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to a year earlier.

But faltering economic growth is also a concern, with signs of a slowdown now abundant in Europe, and the

"Our macroeconomic view remains firmly bearish," said.

Surging U.S. output may also undermine OPEC's efforts to tighten the market.

U.S. production rose by more than 2 million bpd last year, to 11.9 million bpd, making the the world's biggest

Most analysts expect U.S. output to rise past 12 million bpd soon, and perhaps even hit 13 million bpd by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Noah Browning; Additional reporting by in Singapore and Colin Packham in Sydney; Editing by Dale Hudson)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, February 15 2019. 14:44 IST