Nigeria’s oil production output dropped to 1.388 million barrels per day, from the 1.46mbpd it pumped in April according to data from secondary sources in the monthly report released by Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
According to the cartel, while production output by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran increased, output from Nigeria and Angola declined. The cartel however still expects the global economy to accelerate in the second half of 2021, keeping its forecast of oil demand growth unchanged in its latest market analysis and pledging to remain vigilant to prevent prices from backsliding.
Oil inventories of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a metric the producer bloc tracks closely, have continued to draw but remain 34 million barrels higher than the 2015-2019 average it is targeting, OPEC said in its monthly oil market report. “The recovery in global economic growth, and hence oil demand, are expected to gain momentum in 2H21,” OPEC said in the report.
Oil trims gains, but heads for third weekly rise on demand recovery
Meanwhile, Oil prices slipped on Friday but were set for their third weekly rise on expectations for a recovery in fuel demand in Europe, China and the United States as rising vaccination rates lead to an easing of pandemic curbs.
Brent crude futures fell 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $72.29 a barrel at 0145 GMT, reversing most of Thursday’s climb to its highest close since May 2019. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $70.07 a barrel, after climbing 0.5% on Thursday to its highest close since October 2018.
Brent is set for a gain of 0.5% this week while WTI is set to climb 0.6%. “If you take the week, we’ve certainly seen prices lift on some demand hopes, but it was mixed,” said Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar. “The U.S. stockpile data didn’t paint a good picture. We saw gasoline and distillate stockpiles really surge. Towards the end of the week that was a dampener on the spirits,” he said.
