Crude oil was mixed to lower Tuesday morning during Asian trade hours. U.S WTI contract was higher thanks to reduced flows out of Canada and WTI Brent moved lower on the morning.
As of 2 am GMT, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were fetching $62.16 a barrel. This is up 48 cents, or 0.8 percent, from yesterday’s closing price.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, were trading at $65.23 per barrel. This is down 44 cents from their last close, on Monday.
Traders said the higher WTI prices were thanks to a reduction of flow from Canada’s Keystone pipeline. This system has been operating below capacity since late last year thanks to a leak. This reduced the supply of Canadian oil into the United States.
Internationally, outside of the United States and North America, Brent moved lower following a dip in Asian equities and a stronger U.S. dollar. A stronger dollar often will curb demand as it makes fuel more expensive. Especially for countries using other currencies to pay for the commodity.
Crude Oil Traders continue to Follow Supply Headlines
The oil markets continue to find support thanks to supply restraint, which is ongoing by the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). These constraints were put into place last year in order to help reduce excess global inventories as well as bring the price of the black gold higher.
OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo that the organization is seeing an impressive 133 percent compliance with the output reduction targets for the month of January.
He said that compliance was at 107 percent for January 2017.
Global oil demand, for 2018, is forecasted to grow by 1.6 million barrels per day thanks to an “encouraging environment”, Barkindo said in yesterday’s meeting.