Oil took multiple drops and tumbles in the first half of 2017 and has fallen by more than 14 percent because of the oversupplied market, but one fund manager believes that the worst is finally over and oil is reaching a turning point.
Crude prices posted their worst first-half performance since 1998 as OPEC-led production cuts have failed to put an end to the global oversupply. The OPEC agreement failed to achieve their goal to significantly downsize bulging stockpiles around the world.
Rob Thummel, the managing director for tortoise Capital Advisor stated that “The energy sector has been down but it is not out just yet”
Thummel sees a lack of capital investment in the U.S. productions that would lead to an oversupply of crude oil that would eventually result to a rise in crude prices.
Baker Hughes, an oilfield services firm, stated on Friday that its weekly count of oil rigs operating in the U.S. fields was down by two rigs, which was its first decline since January. In the previous week the U.S. Crude output dropped 100,000 barrels per day or 9.3 million barrels per day, which is the steepest weekly fall since July 2016.
While the oil market rebalances it out the midstream energy transportation and storage sector will be an attractive investment.
"If you look at where [energy infrastructure] trades at historical levels, they look pretty cheap right now," Thummel added.