By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Is $60 WTI coming? Probably -- but not before the latest weekly dataset on U.S. oil.
Both U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude and London's Brent, the global benchmark for oil, hit 2019 highs on Tuesday, extending the previous session's rally spurred by OPEC's plans to cut oil exports through June. But after those session peaks, the two benchmarks retreated, with U.S. crude closing slightly down and Brent marginally higher.
WTI's May contract, currently its most active, settled down 9 cents, or 0.2%, at $59.29 per barrel, after scaling $59.86 earlier, its highest since November.
The May contract for Brent closed the day's trade up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $67.61 per barrel, after a four-month peak at $68.20.
Oil prices have jumped about 30% this year, underpinned by aggressive production cuts carried out by the 14-member OPEC headed by Saudi Arabia and another 10 allies of the oil-producing club led by Russia. The Trump administration's sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan crude have further restricted global supplies amid a production drop lately of the otherwise prolific U.S. shale oil.
Many analysts now expect WTI to breach $60 and Brent $70 in the next phase of the oil rally as the Saudis push for their desired average price of $80 per barrel.
WTI could get to $60 in Tuesday's post-settlement trade if the American Petroleum Institute reports at 4:30 PM a bullish snapshot of what the government-run Energy Information Administration is likely say about oil supply-demand for last week.
The EIA is expected to cite on Wednesday a U.S. crude stockpile build of 600,000 barrels for the week ended March 15, versus an unexpected draw of 3.9 million barrels in the week prior.
But some analysts said there could have been another surprise draw last week.
"Continued draws in crude is not seasonal for this time of the year and could fire up some supply-and-demand bulls, as it's apparent that U.S. production is not keeping pace with exports and import drops due to Venezuela and OPEC cuts," said Scott Shelton, broker and commentator for energy futures at ICAP (LON:NXGN) in Durham, N.C.