Yahoo Finance Oil Prices Rise as IEA Forecasts Supply Deficit in 2019
Investing.com - Oil prices rose on Thursday as the International Energy Agency forecast that the market would rebalance faster than it originally thought.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 19 cents, or 0.37%, at $51.34 a barrel by 10:45 AM ET (15:45 GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., traded up 16 cents, or 0.27%, to $60.31.
In its monthly report, the IEA left its 2019 forecast for global demand unchanged at 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), but now expects a deficit in supply to occur in the second quarter of next year. Back in November it had forecast a surplus for all of 2019.
The IEA emphasized that its calculations assumed that OPEC and allies led by Russia would follow through on their agreement to cut output by 1.2 million bpd starting in January.
“Time will tell how effective the new production agreement will be in rebalancing the oil market,” the IEA admitted.
The report did highlight however that U.S. shale's influence over global crude markets would only get stronger.
"While the U.S. was not present in Vienna, nobody could ignore its growing influence," the IEA said.
Markets found some relief on Wednesday when the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. oil production had fallen from a record high of 11.7 million barrels per day to 11.6 million.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures rose 1.08% to $1.4384 a gallon by 10:49 AM ET (15:49 GMT), while heating oil dropped 0.17% to $1.8477 a gallon.
Lastly, natural gas futures traded up 2.56% to $4.242 per million British thermal units.
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