Oil prices remain at their highest level in nine weeks

Oil prices held near their highest level in nine weeks on Monday, boosted by strong US employment data and a slight decline in the number of US drilling platforms, although OPEC output hampered gains.
“Brent futures prices rose 8 cents or 0.15 percent to 52.50 dollars a barrel at 0059 GMT. US crude futures were up 7 cents or 0.14 percent to $ 49.65 a barrel.
“International benchmark prices also rose to near its highest level since late May when OPEC oil producers extended an agreement to cut output by 1.8 million bpd by the end of March,” the agency said.
“Crude oil prices rose strongly after investors viewed US employment data as a positive sign for oil demand in the United States,” the bank said in a note. “It also reinforced a slight decline in the number of drilling platforms operating In the United States also prices. ”
“Companies in the United States added 209,000 workers more than expected in July and increased wages,” the US Department of Labor said on Friday.
“Companies have reduced the number of oil drilling platforms by one excavator in the week ending Aug. 4, bringing the overall number down to 765,” Baker Hughes Energy Services said.
Despite the decline in the number of drilling platforms last week, oil production in the United States reached 9.43 million barrels per day, the highest level since August 2015.
OPEC crude oil exports in July rose to a record 26.11 million bpd, mostly from Nigeria, a Thomson Reuters Oil Research report said last week.
Officials from a joint technical committee of OPEC countries and non-OPEC countries are due to meet in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday to discuss ways to boost compliance with the cut production agreement.


https://en.economiciraq.com/2017/08/0...in-nine-weeks/