Oil ends five-week rally on oversupply concerns

NEW YORK — Oil futures fell more than two percent on Friday, ending Brent crude’s longest multi-week rally in 16 months as oversupply concerns reappeared as producers have started hedging future drilling.

Brent futures settled down 2.40%, or $1.38 a barrel, to $55.62, snapping a five-week winning streak that was the longest since June 2016. For the week, Brent lost 3.30%.

US West Texas Intermediate ( WTI) crude dropped $ 1.50 to $49.29, a 3% decline, putting losses on the week at 4.60%.

Russia clarified remarks made by President Vladimir Putin about the oil market earlier this week, saying he did not propose extending a global oil output cut deal but said he recognized it was a possibility.

“Yesterday we had Russia and the Saudis talking about extending cooperation, and today we saw a little bit of backtracking with respect to additional cuts in production,” said Houstonbased consultant Andrew Lipow.

“What the market gained yesterday is clearly being given back today.”

The prospect of extended oil production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers led by Russia had supported prices in recent sessions.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Thursday he was “flexible” about prolonging the production-curbing pact until the end of 2018.

However, concerns linger about growing US crude exports, due to a hefty WTI discount to Brent prices, which makes US oil more competitive.

US crude exports’ rise to a record of nearly two million barrels per day last week and the growth in US production to 9.56 million barrels per day has fanned oversupply fears.

Producer hedging has picked up as oil hit $50 a barrel, according to Bank of America (BofA) analysts, who said that if producers keep boosting hedging, “they can limit the sensitivity of production to spot prices and continue to increase output in 2018.” BofA said about 115 million barrels have been hedged since late August after lower-than-usual volumes in the early part of the year.

Supply may be somewhat restricted this week, as the impending arrival of tropical storm Nate had already shut in 70% of offshore US oil and gas production, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The lack of a rally on Nate’s approach suggests “the risk premium is baked into the cake from the active hurricane season, which is going to be gone soon,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities. —