Crude Oil Prices Settle Lower, Focus Shifts to US Output

Investing.com – Oil prices settled lower on Monday as traders appeared to take profit on the recent rally which followed last week’s decision by Opec and some non-Opec producers to extend output curbs.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange for January delivery fell 1.5% to settle at $57.47 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, lost 1.8% to trade at $62.48 a barrel.

Crude oil made a subdued start to the week amid profit taking on the back of the recent rally to more than two-year highs as traders shifted to attention to US crude output, which remained close to record highs.

U.S. output rose in September to 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest monthly output since 2015, the EIA said last week.

Sentiment on oil prices, however, remained bullish amid expectations that rebalancing in markets will continue after OPEC and some non-OPEC producers who met on Thursday in Vienna, Austria, said they would continue to cut supply by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2018.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) Commodity Research noted recently it doesn’t expect the cuts to significantly lift oil prices amid fears over a ramp up in US shale output.

“We take away from these [OPEC] comments a strong commitment to normalizing inventories and also to remain data dependent, which reduces the risk of both unexpected supply surprises and excess stock draws,” Goldman Sachs said.

Data on Friday showed the recent uptick in US oil rigs continued, as rig counts rose by two to 179, the highest since September, Baker Hughes said.

Despite fears over rising U.S. output recent data showed traders increase their bullish bets on oil as net longs rose 39,500 to 651,100, the highest since April, according to the CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) report.

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