SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose on Wednesday as producer club OPEC said it had cut supply deeply in January and as US sanctions hit Venezuela’s oil exports. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $53.52 per barrel at 0752 GMT, up 42 cents, or 0.8 per cent, from their last close.
US prices were also supported by a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday showing that crude inventories fell by 998,000 barrels in the week to Feb. 8 to 447.2 million, compared with analyst expectations for an increase of 2.7 million barrels.
International Brent crude futures were up 0.8 per cent, or 52 cents, at $62.94 per barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), which Saudi Arabia de-facto leads as the world’s top crude oil exporter, said on Tuesday that it had cut its output by almost 800,000 bpd in January to 30.81 million bpd.
Supply issues in Opec-member Venezuela are also bolstering oil prices as the South American country suffers a political and economic crisis, with Washington introducing petroleum export sanctions against state-owned energy firm PDVSA. Despite the political rifts between Venezuela and the United States, US refiners have in the past been some of the biggest buyers of Venezuelan crude. These customers have fallen away after Washington imposed sanctions earlier this year.
“With so far no sign of change in government, we see increasing risks that production losses could be larger and sooner than our forecast for a 0.33 million-bpd supply loss in 2019,” Goldman Sachs said. — Reuters
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