Oil Production Vital Statistics September 2017

On around June 28th the price of WTI and Brent once again began to diverge and the spread now stands at over $7. The WTI - Brent spread was a feature of the high oil price era and its reappearance could be a bullish signal for the oil price. While WTI is trading sideways the Brent chart is bullish having decisively broken through resistance at $55. North American production has recovered from July 2016 lows to stand at 19.91 Mbpd in August 2017. OPEC remains largely compliant with the agreed production cuts but this is significantly undone by production increases of 230,000 bpd in Nigeria and 360,000 bpd in Libya (total +590,000 bpd since the October 2016 datum), who were not party to the OPEC deal. The recovery in North Sea Oil production that began in October 2012 is now faltering and this observation alone may explain why the Brent oil price is staging a recovery. Continue reading →