Crude oil prices rallied to a 2016 high above $51/bbl in June, stoked by continuing outages in Nigeria and Canada as well as a steady decline in US oil production. May marked the third straight month of average price rises in Brent and WTI futures.

The August Brent crude contract on London’s ICE fell 52¢ to $48.93/bbl, its lowest settlement since June 3. The September contract was also down 49¢ to $50.33/bbl. The July gas oil contract settled at $443.50/tonne on June 14, down $9.75.

Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 fell to $49.74 per barrel, at 1327 GMT, down 80 cents, after trading as low as $49.61.

OPEC predicted that the global oil market will be more balanced in the second half of this year as demand rises and rival supplies falter, echoing views expressed by ministers at the group’s meeting this month.

“There are still no fundamental factors for growth in oil prices,” Siluanov said. “We should plan our financial resources on that basis.”

Brent crude for August delivery settled at $51.44/bbl on the London market. It was the highest price for front-month Brent since Oct. 9, 2015.

Policymakers must find new ways to promote private sector development and help their economies diversify away from oil.

In 2015 global demand for primary energy grew by only 1%, significantly slower than the 10-year average. This reflected continued weakness in the global economy and lower growth in Chinese energy consumption as the country shifts from an industrial to a service-driven economy.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to average $43/b in 2016 and $52/b in 2017, $3/b and $1/b higher than forecast in last month's STEO, respectively. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to be slightly lower than Brent in 2016 and to be the same as Brent in 2017.

London Brent crude for August delivery was up 9 cents at $51.53 a barrel by 0451 GMT, after settling up 89 cents on Tuesday. It earlier touched $51.55, the highest since Oct. 12.

The global benchmark, Brent, gained 1.15% to reach $50.21 a barrel. Its U.S. counterpart, West Texas Intermediate, was trading up 1.13% at $49.17 a barrel.

Prices need to be at level above $50 a barrel for more crude supplies to come back to the market following a slump over the past two years, Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, told reporters in his suite in a Vienna hotel.

“We will be very gentle in our approach, so we don’t shock the market in any way,” Saudi Arabia’s new oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, said before he sat down with his counterparts in Vienna on Thursday. “We are satisfied with the price movement over the last few months and think it will continue to gently edge up without much intervention, assuming that more or less OPEC production stays where it is.”

“We will be very gentle in our approach, so we don’t shock the market in any way,” Saudi Arabia’s new oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, said before he sat down with his counterparts in Vienna on Thursday. “We are satisfied with the price movement over the last few months and think it will continue to gently edge up without much intervention, assuming that more or less OPEC production stays where it is.”

Chinese exports of diesel began to increase rapidly in 2015, driven by a structural shift in China's economy—which is reducing diesel demand—and by reforms in China's refining sector, which are contributing to increased refinery utilization and diesel production. These two factors have pushed Chinese net diesel exports higher, to more than 300,000 barrels per day in April.