NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) — Oil prices recovered some lost ground in early Tuesday trading on expectations of reasonable growth in 2016 for China and storms in U.S. oil producing states.
Renewed expectations of the return of Iranian crude oil to the market emerged to drag on markets already concerned by oversupplies, pushing key price indices down about 3 percent in Monday trading.
Brent crude oil prices flirted with lows not seen since 2004 before settling at $36.62 per barrel at the end of the trading day in New York. Brent is off more than 30 percent since the start of the year as weak global economic growth keeps crude oil stored in national inventories.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Iran is a member, said output needs to stay robust in order to meet the expected demand from Asian economies. Though slowing from double-digit growth, the People’s Bank of China said it would continue to use a wide range of monetary tools in order to ensure a reasonable level of growth moving into 2016.
Brent crude oil shot up 2.6 percent at the start of trading Tuesday to $37.58 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark price for crude oil, moved closer to parity with Brent to gain 2.2 percent to $37.63 per barrel.
WTI is defending its premium against Brent after the United States reversed a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. Winter storms in southern U.S. states could throttle inventory levels and output, however, as regional traffic woes develop because of icy road conditions in Texas, the No. 1 oil producer in the nation, and Oklahoma, home to the Cushing oil storage hub.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, meanwhile, said the government was using $40 per barrel as a starting point for the next budget year, which starts March 21, 2017.
“So far, $40 has been suggested as the base,” he told the Oil Ministry’s news site SHANA. “We need to have an eye on the market and can’t send bad signals to it.”
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