Crude oil surges as US production falls to 18-month low

By Will Martin

NEW YORK: Oil was on a charge on Thursday morning, surging on news that production in the US fell to its lowest levels in 18 months. On Thursday morning, both major oil benchmarks — West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude — popped more than 2%, as the news of the production drop gave another suggestion to investors that the market may be on its way to balancing.

Both major benchmarks were above the $45 per barrel mark. Oil’s charge on the day was led by data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday that showed that oil production in the country has fallen to its lowest level since September 2014. US production decreased by 113,000 barrels per day last week, marking the biggest weekly decline in output since last July. US domestic output has fallen for 11 consecutive weeks.

That further fall in production suggests that the markets are going someway to addressing the supply/demand imbalance that has plagued markets and caused prices to fall from more than $100 per barrel in 2014 to as low as $27 in January.

Accendo Markets’ Mike van Dulken says oil was also given an extra boost because: “Wildfires in Canada were seen to affect production there, while an escalation of violence in Libya did the same on this side of the pond.”

Despite the good news from the EIA, oil inventories actually continued to grow last week.