OIL PRICE: NEAR $62 AGAIN

REUTERS - Oil prices rose on Friday after a report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed its production fell sharply last month, easing fears about prolonged oversupply.

A report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday saying that Washington was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports also buoyed financial markets, including oil, analysts said.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $52.62 per barrel at 0339 GMT, up 55 cents, or 1.1 percent, from their last settlement.

International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up 54 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $61.72 per barrel.

OPEC, along with some other producers including Russia, cut oil output sharply in December before a new accord to limit supply took effect on Jan. 1, it said on Thursday, suggesting that producers have made a strong start to averting a glut in 2019 as a slowing economy curbs demand.

OPEC said in its monthly report that its oil output fell by 751,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December to 31.58 million bpd, the biggest month-on-month drop in almost two years.

But tempering that support for prices, OPEC also cut its forecast for average daily demand for its crude in 2019 to 30.83 million barrels, down 910,000 bpd from the 2018 average.

Undermining OPEC's efforts to tighten oil markets has been a surge in crude output from the United States, which increased by more than 2 million bpd in the last year to an unprecedented 11.9 million bpd.

"Though OPEC reports are likely to bolster market sentiment for stronger oil prices in the near-term, we remain cautious in the longer run amidst persistent economic weakness and incremental U.S. shale production," Benjamin Lu of Singapore-based brokerage Phillip Futures said in a note.

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Earlier: 

2019, January, 16, 11:40:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $60 REUTERS - International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were at $60.68 per barrel at 0703 GMT, 4 cents above their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 2 cents from their last settlement, at $52.13 a barrel.

2019, January, 16, 11:20:00 OIL MARKET BALANCE REUTERS - “If we look beyond the noise of weekly data and speculators’ herd-like behavior, I remain convinced that we’re on the right track, and that the oil market will quickly return to balance,” said Falih, addressing an oil conference in Abu Dhabi.

2019, January, 16, 11:15:00 OIL PRICE LEVEL: $70 AN - Bank of America Merrill Lynch has retained its forecast that oil will average at $70 this year, after prices rebounded from a two-year low in December.

2019, January, 16, 11:10:00 OIL PRICES 2019-20: $61-65 U.S. EIA - EIA forecasts Brent prices will average $61 per barrel (b) in 2019 and $65/b in 2020. In 2018, Brent prices averaged $71/b.

2019, January, 16, 11:05:00 OPEC WILL DOWN 800 TBD SHANA - the OPEC Conference that unanimously decided on December 7 to adjust OPEC overall production by 0.8 mb/d from October 2018 levels, effective as of January 2019, for an initial period of six months.

2019, January, 14, 12:20:00 OIL PRICE: NEAR $60 REUTERS - International Brent crude oil futures were at $59.88 per barrel at 0816 GMT, down 60 cents, or 1 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 59 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $51 a barrel.

2019, January, 14, 12:10:00 RUSSIA'S OIL PRODUCTION DOWN 30 TBD PLATTS - Russia has already lowered its oil output by around 30,000 b/d compared with October volumes, used as a baseline under the latest OPEC/non-OPEC crude production agreement, and still plans to reach a cut of 50,000 b/d by the end of January, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said Friday.