Oil Recovers after Two-Day Decline as Brent Gains 0.7%

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s hope for oil to sell above $60 per barrel was looking good on Friday, August 16 as Brent Crude rebounded to trade at $58.64, gaining 41 cents or 0.7 percent on the global market.

For the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude, it gained 40 cents or 0.73 percent yesterday to exchange for $54.87 per barrel on the international market.

In the past few days, prices of the highly demanded commodity had been facing south as a result of rising tensions caused by the trade war between Washington and Beijing.

Oil gains were capped after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries trimmed its global oil demand forecast in a downbeat outlook for the rest of 2019 as economic growth slows.

The cartel also highlighted challenges in 2020 as rivals pump more, building a case to keep up an OPEC-led pact to restrain supplies.

“OPEC killed the golden goose,” said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho in New York. “We’ve had some little rallies back into the green, as market tries to follow equities higher, but the fundamentals in the report are so bearish that it caps the rallies.”

Brent crude was up 49 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $58.72 a barrel, after falling 2.1 percent on Thursday and 3 percent the previous day. U.S. crude rose 40 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $54.87 a barrel after having dropped 1.4 percent in the previous session and 3.3 percent on Wednesday.

Before the OPEC monthly report release, Brent touched a session high of $59.50 and U.S. crude traded at $55.67 as investors expect further interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and moves by the European Central Bank next month to fight softening growth.