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OIL AND GAS
OPEC deal more about balance than price
by Daniel J. Graeber
New York (UPI) Dec 1, 2016


Oil rally continues after OPEC deal
New York (UPI) Dec 1, 2016 - Crude oil prices staged another rally one day after OPEC agreed to a production cut that would erase what it sees for global demand growth if implemented.

Despite early doubts it was possible, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached an agreement to set a target production of 32.5 million barrels per day "in order to accelerate the ongoing drawdown of the stock overhang and bring the oil market rebalancing forward."

A surge in crude production from U.S. shale, Russia and a post-sanctions Iran helped push markets heavily toward the supply side, sending oil prices crashing below the $30 mark in early 2016. If implemented, the OPEC agreement would cut what the 14-member group said it expects for demand next year.

Crude oil prices shot up nearly 10 percent in the wake of the agreement and the enthusiasm spilled over into Thursday trading. The price for Brent crude oil was up 2.9 percent to start the trading day at $53.36 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark price for oil, was up 2.8 percent to $50.84 per barrel for one of its strongest starts for the year.

Olivier Jakob, managing director of Switzerland-based consultant Petromatrix, said the agreement has a number of flaws, ranging from exemptions for once major contributors like Libya and Nigeria to uncertainty about Russia's role in the agreement. Nevertheless, the agreement helps ease some of the supply-side pressures holding oil prices back.

"The supply and demand is therefore not going to be as tight as OPEC portrays it, but it will still be a meaningful cut of supply that will accelerate the global rebalancing," he said.

Much of the recent gains in oil prices have come from rhetoric alone. If compliance with the deal is uncertain, however, it could erase some of the optimism supporting the current rally. If oil prices move too high, meanwhile, operators in expensive shale basins in the United States will return to work and contribute to the oversupply.

For the economy as a whole, the U.S. Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment for the week ending Nov. 26 increased 17,000 and the less volatile four-week moving average gained 500 from the previous estimate. That followed a report earlier in the week that showed the U.S. economy had grown faster than during the second quarter.

An OPEC agreement to limit oil production for the first time in nearly a decade does more to erase a market surplus than support higher prices, analysis finds.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries concluded meetings in Vienna with an agreement to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day to align with a proposal put forward in Algeria. That cut matches what OPEC expects for world oil demand growth through next year.

The proposed cut is contingent on a number of factors, including cooperation from non-member states like Russia. On the back of the news, crude oil prices staged one of their largest rallies in years, with the price for Brent at one point surging 10 percent in midday trading Wednesday.

A research note from Goldman Sachs said that while the guidelines are substantial, a true catalyst for a major rebound in crude oil prices would have to come from verified compliance and more clarity from member states like Iran. Goldman said there are conflicting narratives on cooperation from some OPEC producers.

"We reiterate our view that this is a short duration cut, targeting excess inventories and not high oil prices, which would instead unleash a sharp production response both in the United States and in the rest of the world," the note read.

Before the deal was reached, Qatari Energy Minister and OPEC President Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada said there were signs the market situation was returning to balance. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show total crude oil stocks relatively unchanged from the last week in October, suggesting market pressures were indeed correcting some of the supply-side pressures that dragged oil prices to below $30 per barrel in early 2016.

Fitch Ratings in a research note said the oversupply should erode through next year as supply and demand start to balance out. With questions lingering still over which country will do what under the agreement, and how much output countries exempt from the deal like Libya and Nigeria can contribute, the ratings agency said there are risks the OPEC production agreement won't work as planned.

"Significant risk remains that OPEC members will produce crude above quotas, as has happened in the past," it said. "This could slow market rebalancing."


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