AGL 40.02 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-0.19%)
BOP 6.66 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.91%)
CNERGY 4.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-2.17%)
DCL 8.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.35%)
DFML 42.10 Increased By ▲ 0.62 (1.49%)
DGKC 86.73 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.17%)
FCCL 32.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.12%)
FFBL 64.94 Decreased By ▼ -0.48 (-0.73%)
FFL 10.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.98%)
HUBC 109.45 Decreased By ▼ -1.04 (-0.94%)
HUMNL 14.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.68%)
KEL 5.12 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.19%)
KOSM 7.17 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.7%)
MLCF 41.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.43%)
NBP 59.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.32%)
OGDC 195.01 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (0.16%)
PAEL 28.34 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (1.4%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.13%)
PPL 151.70 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (0.35%)
PRL 26.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.37 (-1.38%)
PTC 16.10 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.63%)
SEARL 78.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.13%)
TELE 7.46 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.95%)
TOMCL 35.43 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-0.67%)
TPLP 8.07 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (2.02%)
TREET 16.13 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (1.51%)
TRG 52.94 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (0.34%)
UNITY 26.70 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.56%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,915 Decreased By -5.2 (-0.05%)
BR30 30,757 Increased By 5.9 (0.02%)
KSE100 93,256 Increased By 31.4 (0.03%)
KSE30 28,895 Increased By 10.1 (0.03%)

Oil prices extended losses on Monday as Saudi Arabia and Russia said they may increase supplies while US production gains showed no sign of slowing. Brent crude futures stood at $75.32 a barrel at 1805 GMT, down $1.12 from the previous close. The contract touched a three-week low of $74.49 earlier in the session.
US crude futures were at $66.47, down $1.41, after hitting a six-week low of $65.80. The spread between the two contracts reached $9.38 a barrel, its widest since March 2015.
Trading was light due to public holidays in the United States and United Kingdom. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and other producers led by Russia began withholding 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of supplies in 2017 to tighten the market and prop up prices that in 2016 fell to their lowest in more than a decade at less than $30 a barrel.
Prices have soared since the start of the cuts last year, with Brent breaking through $80 this month, triggering concerns that high prices could crimp economic growth and stoke inflation.
"The pace of the recent rise in oil prices has sparked a debate among investors on whether this poses downside risks to global growth," Chetan Ahya, chief economist at US bank Morgan Stanley, wrote in a weekend note.
To address potential supply shortfalls Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of Opec, and top producer Russia have been in talks about easing the cuts and raising oil production by 1 million bpd, sources said last week. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Saturday that a return to October 2016 production levels, the baseline for the current supply pact, was one option for easing curbs.
"Given that our crude balance is short some 825,000 bpd over (the second half of the year), a gradual increase of about 1 million bpd would probably limit stock draws to quite some extent," Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy said.
Meanwhile, surging US crude production showed no sign of abating as drillers continued to expand their search for new oilfields to exploit.
US energy companies added 15 rigs looking for new oil in the week ending May 25, bringing the rig count to 859, its highest since 2015, in a strong indication that American crude production will continue to rise.
US crude output has already surged by more than 27 percent in the past two years, to 10.73 million bpd, ever closer to Russia's 11 million bpd.

Copyright Reuters, 2018

Comments

Comments are closed.