Oil futures were on the rebound Tuesday, on the heels of a pullback led by the Brent benchmark, as investors pushed aside higher output concerns and refocused on a potential lack of supply.
August light, sweet crude CLQ8, +1.04% on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 75 cents, or 1% at $74.68 a barrel, while September Brent LCOU8, +0.66% — the international benchmark — was up 46 cents, or 0.6% to $77.76 a barrel.
Oil prices paused on Monday, with the bulk of a pullback seen in Brent crude prices, which fell 2.4%. The market was partly rattled by a weekend tweet from President Donald Trump who said that he had asked Saudi Arabia to pump even more oil into the market, though the White House later walked back his comments.
Some are concerned there just isn’t enough supply to make up for supply disruptions, even if Saudi Arabia pitches in with more oil. And on Tuesday, investors were once again focused on all the factors that could curb global supply, chiefly problems in oil-rich Libya.
A power struggle in Libya has removed 850,000 barrels form the supply chain and “all but wipes out” the planned production increase that was hammered out recently from OPEC and non-OPEC members, said Stephen Innes, senior trader with OANDA.
”Many forces are currently supporting” the market, said John Driscoll, chief strategist at Singapore-based JTD Energy. They include ongoing production declines in Venezuela, missing Libya exports and a “relentless wave of geopolitical interference” by the White House in the oil markets.
Among other energy contracts, August gasoline RBQ8, +0.56% shed 2.2% to $2.105 a gallon, while August heating oil HOQ8, +0.62% rose 0.6% to $2.176 a gallon. August natural gas NGQ18, +0.07% was flat at $2.864 per million British thermal units.
