Crude oil broke through the psychological threshold of 50 USD/barrel for the first time in three weeks. When denominated in USD, it rose 5.5% in the past week.
Saudi Arabia sent a warning message to U.S. oil producers not to ramp up their output too quickly. OPEC, of which Saudi Arabia is a key member, currently has an agreement to reduce production by 1.2 million barrels a day until June 2017.
The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count showed an increase of 10, bringing the total to 662. In 2014, the count was 1,600 before it bottomed out in 2016 at only 315.
According to Aberdeen fund manager Viktor Szabo, even though the Bank of Russia sees crude oil at around 40 USD/barrel in the coming years, this scenario, as usual, is considered conservative for the central bank.
The price of diesel in CAD/litre also nudged upward slightly this week and we remain more than 0.05CAD/litre below the levels seen at the end of the last month. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you to contact us to review your hedging strategies for your future fuel consumption.
Have a great week!