Oil Trades Near $31 as Venezuela Meets Saudi Arabia on Market
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(Bloomberg) — Oil traded near $31 a barrel as Saudi Arabia said it held “successful” talks with Venezuela about cooperating to stabilize the market, without elaborating on the steps required to shore up prices.
Futures were little changed in New York after falling 8.1 percent last week. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi met with his Venezuelan counterpart on Sunday in Riyadh to discuss the South American nation’s recent talks with other producers to bring market stability, the Saudi ministry said in a statement. Total wagers on the price of crude rose to the highest level since the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission began tracking the data in 2006.
Oil is down about 16 percent this year amid concerns about Iran’s effort to boost exports after the removal of sanctions and brimming U.S. crude stockpiles. The nation’s drillers idled the most rigs since April last week as supplies rose above 500 million barrels through Jan. 29 to the highest level since 1930.
“There are very little signs of abatement on the supply side,” Michael McCarthy, a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “West Texas is likely to trade between $30 and $34. We could get a push outside of this, but I suspect that’s going to be a central range for months to come.”
West Texas Intermediate for March delivery was at $30.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 6 cents, at 9:01 a.m. Hong Kong time. The contract fell 83 cents to $30.89 on Friday. Total volume traded was at about 4 percent above the 100-day average. Prices lost 30 percent last year.
Brent for April settlement was at $34.01 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, down 5 cents. The contract slid 2 percent last week. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $1.25 to WTI for April.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Hong Kong at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net Aaron Clark, Iain Wilson
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