The price of oil slipped on Friday’s opening session as its good performance on the previous settlement didn’t last that long.
Global benchmark for oil futures Brent crude was 0.1 percent down or 8 cents to settle at $69.18 per barrel after reaching its best level since December 2014 of $70.05 per barrel notched on Thursday. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices edged lower by 0.3 percent or more than 22 cents to close at $63.58 per barrel. Just like Brent, WTI also notched its best level since December 2014 at $64.77 per barrel.
Edison Investment Research analyst Sanjeev Bahl said on the same day that club OPEC handled the reduction of stockpile surplus effectively and the growth of demands remained strong, but only for a small period of time. Bahl added that there is a possibility that the price of oil will experience a big jump if inventories stabilize.
The efforts of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to curb production begun last January 2017 and will end this year.
Commercial crude oil stockpiles in the United States dropped below its five-year average of more than 420 million barrels as it was 5 million barrels short in the entire week to January 5, 419.5 million barrels. Global Risk Management, a hedging firm for fuel prices, said that the possibilities of higher oil prices this 2018 will soon happen.
Political uncertainties surrounding Venezuela, Libya and Iran, along with the production cuts of OPEC and other producers seemed to continuously support prices.