Crude Oil Prices Mixed but Optimism Prevails

Investing.com – Crude oil prices were mixed on Tuesday, as reduced supplies from Canada boosted demand for U.S. oil futures, while the Brent contract remained lower although optimism over the rebalancing of the market persisted.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate April contract was little changed at $61.55 a barrel by 10:00 a.m. ET (14:00 GMT), just off a two-week high of $62.64 hit overnight.

The U.S. contract was boosted a result of reduced flows from Canada’s Keystone pipeline, which has been operating below capacity since late last year due to a leak.

Elsewhere, for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London lost 67 cents or about 1.02% to $65.00 a barrel, after hitting a more than one-week peak of $65.90 on Monday.

Prices strengthened after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could act against Iran itself, not just its allies in the Middle East, following border incidents in Syria.

The commodity also remained supported by ongoing global supply cut efforts. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed in December to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018.

The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.

However fears that rising U.S. output could dampen OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies have systematically limited oil prices’ gains recently.

Elsewhere, retreated 1.09% to $1.762 a gallon, while gained 2.89% to $2.632 per million British thermal units.

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