By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 1st April, 2019.
The May Brent crude oil futures contract, which expired on Friday, rose 57 cents to $68.39 and the most active June contract settled up by 48 cents to $67.58. The WTI futures contract gained 84 cents or 1.42% to $60.14 a barrel on Friday, ending the week high. The Shanghai crude oil main contract rose by 1Yuan or 0.22% at 457.9 Yuan/barrel while MCX crude futures in India closed Rs.42 up at Rs.4185. The global benchmarks posted a biggest quarterly gains in a decade since second quarter of 2009 when both gained about 40 pct.
On going OPEC cuts, U.S sanctions on Iran and Venezuela undermined the economic concerns to move oil prices up. OPEC+ is planned to meet in June to review the supply cut pact. Saudi is finding tough time to convince its non-OPEC spearhead. Russians may agree to extend production cuts to till Sep. On the other hand, U.S is planning to increase the production to suppress the upward price momentum. Turning to weekly data, Baker Hughes reported that the oil rigs were taken out from drilling operations in U.S during the last week. Today, Asian markets are opened up, Continuing the first quarterly gains. Good day.
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