Oil Prices Bounce Back as Focus Shifts to U.S. Stockpile Data

Investing.com – Oil prices rebounded from the prior day’s losses on Tuesday, as market players looked ahead to the release of fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories.

U.S. futures for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on 52 cents, or around 1%, to $52.51 a barrel by 8:20AM ET (13:20 GMT).

Elsewhere, for April delivery on the ICE (NYSE:) Futures Exchange in London rose 60 cents, or about 1%, to $60.41 a barrel.

Prices were supported by reassurances from Saudi Arabia that it will continue to rein in output in response to the slowdown in the world economy that has hit expectations for oil demand.

Bloomberg reported Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih as saying Monday that the kingdom will reduce its oil output again in February and continue to pump at well below the level agreed by OPEC and its allies through June.

“This is not what @stevenmnuchin1 and @realDonaldTrump admin want to hear with sanctions now implemented on Venezuela’s oil industry. But it should have been expected after what happened in 2018,” said Ellen R. Wald, president of Transversal Consulting, via Twitter.

The is due to release its weekly report for the week ended Jan. 25 at 4:30 PM ET (21:30 GMT).

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly report will be released on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, oil traders continued to monitor developments in Venezuela after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA.

“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of PDVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them,” the U.S. Treasury said late on Monday.

The move, which National Security John Bolton said would cost Venezuela as much as $11 billion a year, is aimed at pressuring President Nicolas Maduro into stepping down following a disputed election battle with rival Juan Guaido.

In other energy trading, added 0.4% to $1.357 a gallon, while rose 1.5% to $1.863 a gallon.

advanced 0.5% to $2.886 per million British thermal units.

— Reuters contributed to this report

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