Oil Posts First Monthly Gain Since July Despite Rising Supplies
Canadian drillers may also add crude supplies to the market.
(Bloomberg) -- Oil eked out the first monthly gain since July, after sliding the most in three weeks on a combination of Saudi supply gains and renewed worldwide trade woes.
Futures fell 1.6% in New York on Thursday, but nevertheless ended the month slightly higher. Saudi Arabia lifted daily production to about 9.8 million barrels just weeks after crippling missile attacks on crucial installations, consultant JBC Energy said. That supply increase comes amid signs that Chinese officials are resisting some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s key trade demands.
“We have to keep an eye on the trade deal,” said Ashley Petersen, senior oil market analyst at Stratas Advisors in New York. “This is going to be a problem from the rest of the year so there’s going to be more inter-week volatility to come.”
In addition to international developments such as the Saudi recovery and Chinese trade, TC Energy Corp. declared force majeure after it shut a major U.S. pipeline because of an oil spill. Canadian drillers may also add crude supplies to the market after the government loosened output caps for companies that will ship Albertan oil via railroad.
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery lost 88 cents to settle at $54.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It ended the month 0.2% higher.
Brent for December, which expired Thursday, fell 38 cents to $60.23 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange. The global benchmark crude was down 0.9% for the month and traded at a $6.05 premium to WTI.
Chinese policy makers are gathered in Beijing for a key political meeting that’s set to conclude on Thursday. In talks ahead of that plenum, some officials have relayed low expectations that future trade negotiations could result in anything meaningful unless the U.S. is willing to roll back more tariffs. President Trump said the two countries are in the process of selecting a new site to sign what he has called phase one of a broader trade agreement between the two countries.
Elsewhere, Royal Dutch Shell Plc cast a warning for next year, with Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl saying that oil price expectations for 2020 are trending lower.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Jacquelyn Melinek in New York at jmelinek@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Catherine Traywick
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