Investors cut their bullish bets on the oil price to the lowest level since OPEC reached a deal to cut output last year, amid continued doubts about the effectiveness of that agreement.

Saudi Arabia’s conventional approach to market management is no longer working: crude has fallen back below $50 a barrel, US shale oil output is again on the rise and Saudi-led Opec, if anything, is worse off than when it agreed the supply deal back in November, having cut volumes for little upside on price.

The resurgence of the US shale industry after the oil slump of 2014 was a key factor in how crude prices fell sharply last week, to back below $50 per barrel. The market is concerned about whether efforts by Opec, the producers’ cartel, to tackle a supply glut by curbing output will be undermined by reinvigorated US shale companies.

U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 2.09 percent to $46.47 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $49.45, up 2.21 percent on the day.

"The good news is that the market is moving towards rebalancing," Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at the International Oil Summit in Paris last week. "There has also been a rapid drawdown of floating storage in the first quarter of this year. This is being driven by improving fundamentals and the OPEC deal."

OPEC's largest producer Saudi Arabia averaged 9.97 million b/d in April, according to the survey, below its quota under the deal of 10.058 million b/d.

Nigeria’s oil production level has recovered to 2 million bopd, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director Maikanti Baru said late on Tuesday.

Statoil reports adjusted earnings of USD 3.3 billion and an IFRS net operating income of USD 4.3 billion in the first quarter of 2017. The IFRS net income was USD 1.1 billion.

Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) announced today that the international rig count for April 2017 was 956, up 13 from the 943 counted in March 2017, and up 10 from the 946 counted in April 2016. The international offshore rig count for April 2017 was 201, up 4 from the 197 counted in March 2017, and down 19 from the 220 counted in April 2016.

U.S. Rig Count is up 462 rigs from last year's count of 415, with oil rigs up 375, gas rigs up 87, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged. Canadian Rig Count is up 46 rigs from last year's count of 36, with oil rigs up 16, gas rigs up 31, and miscellaneous rigs down 1 to 0.