profitaddaweb.com - Crude oil prices broke above the key $50-level for the first time in three weeks on Thursday, amid indications global supply appears to be tightening.
The crude May contract reached a session peak of $50.12 a barrel, the highest since March 10. It was last at $50.09 by 10:40AM ET (14:40GMT), up 59 cents, or around 1.2%.
Elsewhere,Brent oil for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London rose 40 cents to $52.92 a barrel, after hitting a high of $52.99 earlier, also the most since March 10.
Crude prices rose to the highest levels of the session following reports saying that Kuwait and other OPEC countries support extending production cuts beyond June to balance the market.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day between January and June. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers have agreed to jointly cut by an additional 600,000 barrels per day.
In total, they agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the first six months of the year, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will meet in late April to present its recommendation on the fate of the pact. A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.
Oil has fallen sharply this month amid concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude oil inventories increased by 867,000 barrels last week to yet another all-time high of 534.0 million.
It was the 12th weekly build in U.S. stockpiles in the past 14 weeks, feeding concerns about a global glut.
The view among many oil traders is that higher U.S. shale output could easily wipe out OPEC’s efforts to remove surplus barrels.
