Oil Prices Shrug Off Reopening of Libyan Field, Signs of China Weakness

Investing.com – Oil prices headed higher on Tuesday as hopes that OPEC-led efforts will be able to curtail oversupply outweighed the restart of production at Libya’s largest oilfield or concerns over China’s economy.

New York-traded rose 21 cents, or 0.37%, at $56.80 a barrel by 8:58 AM ET (13:58 GMT).

Meanwhile, , the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., traded up 55 cents, or 0.85%, to $67.39, backing off of $65.62 which was also its best level in three months.

Oil prices have made significant gains this year supported by production cuts of as much as 1.2 million barrels per day from OPEC and its partners, most notably Russia.

Sanctions against OPEC members Iran and Venezuela have also helped curb supplies.

Buying interest kept oil prices higher despite reports that Libya’s El Sharara oilfield, the country’s largest, has restarted and looks set to reach an initial output of 80,000 barrels per day.

Dampening optimism on global demand, China, the world’s largest importer of oil, cut its economic growth target to 6% from the prior 6.5%.

“The environment facing China’s development this year is more complicated and more severe,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the annual meeting of China’s parliament.

However, Beijing also offered more stimulus, including cuts in taxes and social security fees, increases in infrastructure investment and lending to small firms in order to buffer the economy.
Investors now shifted their attention to fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories.

The is due to release its weekly report for the week ended March 1 at 4:30PM ET (21:30 GMT), while will be released on Wednesday. Analysts forecast a small gain of 388,000 barrels.

In other energy trading, gained 0.77% to $1.7625 a gallon by 8:58 AM ET (13:58 GMT), while dropped 0.32% to $2.0078 a gallon.

Lastly, advanced 0.28% to $2.865 per million British thermal unit.

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