OIL PRICES: ABOVE $66 AGAIN

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG - U.S. oil prices hit their highest levels since mid-2015 on the final trading day of the year as an unexpected fall in American production and a fall in commercial crude inventories stoked buying.

In international markets, Brent crude oil futures also rose, supported by ongoing supply cuts by top producers OPEC and Russia as well as strong demand from China.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $60.30 a barrel at 0504 GMT, up 46 cents or 0.8 percent from their last close, the highest since June 2015.

Brent crude futures - the international benchmark - were also up, rising 45 cents or 0.7 percent to $66.61 a barrel. Brent broke through $67 earlier this week for the first time since May 2015.

Since the start of the year, Brent and WTI have risen by 17 and 12 percent, respectively, although the price rises from mid-2017 are much stronger, at nearly 50 percent.

Friday's WTI price rises were driven by a surprise drop in U.S. oil production, which last week dipped to 9.754 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 9.789 million bpd the previous week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released late on Thursday.

U.S. output is still up by almost 16 percent since mid-2016, but most analysts had expected production to break through 10 million bpd by the end of this year - a level only surpassed by top exporter Saudi Arabia and top producer Russia.

WTI prices were further boosted by a fall in U.S. commercial crude storage levels, which dropped by 4.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 22 to 431.9 million barrels, according to the EIA.

Inventories are now down by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, and well below this time last year or in 2015.

A YEAR OF CUTS

In international markets, China has issued crude oil import quotas totaling 121.32 million tonnes for 44 companies in its first batch of allowances for 2018.

Based on total expected quotas, China's imports - which at around 8.5 million bpd are already the world's biggest - are expected to hit another record in 2018 as new refining capacity is brought online and Beijing allows more independent refiners to import crude.

On the supply side, Brent prices have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. The cuts started last January and are scheduled to cover all of 2018.

Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also been supporting oil prices, although both these disruptions are expected to be resolved by early January.

Consultancy JBC Energy said the Libyan pipeline outages had "no major impact on exports".

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Earlier:

2017, December, 27, 12:40:00 OIL PRICES: ABOVE $66 BLOOMBERG - Brent for February settlement lost 20 cents to $66.82 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices climbed $1.77, or 2.7 percent, to $67.02 a barrel Tuesday, the highest close since May 2015. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $6.95 to WTI.

2017, December, 25, 20:45:00 OIL PRICES - 2018: VOLATILE The price of oil in 2018 will be volatile with commodity market traders selling on signals of OPEC-Russia “cheating” or members producing more oil than the extended Algiers Agreement output quotas.

2017, December, 22, 23:05:00 OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $65 REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.16 a barrel at 0755 GMT, down 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $64.81 a barrel, down 19 cents, or 0.1 percent. Русский | English

2017, December, 18, 12:35:00 INEVITABLE OIL CHANGES OPEC - Sustainable oil market stability is crucial to attract the level of investment necessary for future demand growth; In the longer term, oil will remain a vital and integral part of the energy mix; Global energy and oil demand will grow in the long term;

2017, December, 13, 12:30:00 OIL PRICE - 2018: $57 EIA - North Sea Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $63 per barrel (b) in November, an increase of $5/b from the average in October. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices to average $57/b in 2018, up from an average of $54/b in 2017.

2017, December, 11, 09:40:00 OPEC WILL BACK BY 2040 “Tight oil supplies are the wild card. They have reshaped the global outlook in recent years,” observed Ayed S. Al-Qahtani, who directs the research division at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna. “US tight oil supplies will be the most important contributor but are expected to reach their peak around 2025.”

2017, November, 17, 19:55:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $62 REUTERS - Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 66 cents at $62.04 a barrel by 1400 GMT, recovering some ground after five sessions of losses. U.S. light crude hit a three-day high, rising more than $1 before easing back to $56.08, 94 cents up on the day. Русский | English