Crude oil prices were seeing a robust recovery Friday morning, as the market appeared to shrug off reports of a U.S. inventory build-up and instead saw buying opportunities, analysts said.

WTI front month crude futures traded at $58.14 per barrel, a 2.6 percent increase, while Brent crude oil futures were higher by the same percentage to $68.33 per barrel as of 10:20 a.m. Friday.

"Crude oil prices continue to recover from Tuesday's losses. This is despite the EIA confirming an eight consecutive week U.S. oil build in stockpiles in yesterday's figures," DailyFX analyst Justin McQueen told UPI.

"U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 10.3 million barrels from the previous week. At 442.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 5 percent above the five year average for this time of year," the EIA said in a Thursday report. It provided data for the week ending Nov. 9.

Speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, will announce production cuts in a meeting scheduled for Dec. 6 in Vienna contributed to expectations of reduced supply in the future, McQueen said.

"Alongside this, selling in the energy market has been largely overdone, implying that the recovery may indeed persist in the short term," he added.

"Crude oil continues to recover from the capitulation slump earlier in the week," Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, told UPI.

Crude oil prices saw declines since an Oct. 3 peak when Brent futures hit over $86 per barrel. Prices had gained steadily since the United States announced nuclear-related sanctions against Iran in May, amid concerns about reduced supply.

However, on Nov. 5, as the sanctions went into effect, the United States announced waivers to eight nations, that limited the impact. Any remaining concerns about supply disruption shifted to worries about oversupply.

Brent futures hit a low of $65.47 per barrel on Tuesday, down from $70.12 per barrel on Monday.

"Having overshot to the upside just a couple of months ago, the move this week took the price down to an unsustainable from where we believe it will now recover," Hansen said.

Hansen cited the end of the refinery maintenance season, when several plants shut down to clean equipment, as part of the reason. He also cited expectation that oil producing nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, will push for output cuts in a bid to increase prices.

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Crude oil prices 'just fine' around $70 per barrel, Putin says
Washington (UPI) Nov 15, 2018
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