Investing.com – Crude futures settled higher on Monday, but investor sentiment remained largely negative amid fears that rising U.S. production would derail Opec and its allies’ efforts to rein in the glut in supply.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for August delivery added 37 cents to settle at $43.38 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 34 cents to trade at $46.09 a barrel.
Crude prices rebounded from lows shrugging off data from the U.S. Energy Departing showing that shale firms are now on pace to take domestic crude oil output to a record in 2018, surpassing 10 million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc. said in a report on Friday that U.S. drillers added 11 oil rigs in the week to June 23, bringing the total count up to 758, the most since April 2015.
Some analysts remained pessimistic about the rebound in oil prices, as the move higher was not supported by fundamental data or production disruptions.
"I'm seeing little to convince me that this is anything other than a dead cat bounce," OANDA senior market analyst Craig Erlam said.
Oil prices are currently in a bear market, falling 20% since the start of the year, despite numerous pledges from Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih, who said that the oil market is moving in the right direction but rebalancing will take time owing to the large surplus in stockpiles.
In May, Opec and non-Opec members agreed to extend production cuts for a period of nine months until March, but stuck to production cuts of 1.8 million bpd agreed in November last year.