Oil steady as rally fizzles, Opec cuts lend support

— Oil was broadly unchanged on Tuesday, as a recovery from last week’s lows fizzled out, although ongoing production restrictions by the world’s largest exporters prevented prices from falling back.

The prospect of Opec and other producers, including Russia, maintaining their crude output cuts in the face of a boom in US shale production has helped to push the oil price back above $65 a barrel this week, even though the US dollar is not far off twomonth highs, often a dampener for the broader commodity markets. Brent crude futures were down 5 cents at $65.49 a barrel by 1031 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were up 4 cents at $62.61 a barrel. “It’s very hard to see bigger picture as long as you focus on daily headlines, as that creates volatility in the near term ... In the end, you look at the fundamentals and nothing much has changed,” ABN Amro chief energy economist Hans van Cleef said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday global oil demand was expected to grow over the next five years, while output from producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) would rise at a much slower pace.

This initially gave the oil price a boost on Monday, but the IEA’s caveat that the United States would make up for much of the shortfall in output by Opec has since acted as a drag.