Oil steadied on Wednesday near a four-week high after top exporters Saudi Arabia said it was determined to end a supply glut that has been weighing on the market for three years. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Tuesday the kingdom was determined to reduce oil inventories stocks in industrialized countries to their five-year average and raised the prospect of prolonged output restraint once an OPEC-led pact to cut supplies ends.
There is evidence that global inventory levels are falling and demand is strong, but the price has struggled to break above $60 a barrel, partly due to uncertainty about what will happen to crude supplies after March 2018, when the output reduction deal is due to end. Prices also drew support from forecasts of a further drop in U.S. crude inventories as well as nervousness over tensions in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Brent crude was up eight cents at 58.41dollars a barrel, while U.S. crude shed one cent to 52.46 dollars.
Disruptions to exports from Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, amid tensions between Baghdad and autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan have supported oil prices. Kurdish authorities on Wednesday offered to suspend their independence drive.
