The price of Brent on Friday reached the peaks of 2019 above $ 65 per barrel due to the reduction in production by the OPEC + pact members and the partial closure of the largest offshore field in Saudi Arabia.
By this morning, futures for Brent oil added 0.25 percent to $ 64.73 after rising to $ 65.10 earlier in the course of trading. The price of Brent is kept near the three-month peak and increased by 4.5 percent since the beginning of the week.
Futures for the American WTI added 0.20 percent to $ 54.52.
According to traders, prices have increased due to the partial closure of the Saudi field Safaniya , whose production capacity is more than 1 million barrels per day.
At the same time, concerns continue to cause signs of weaker demand and slower growth in the global economy.
An increase in oil production in the United States can undermine OPEC's efforts to improve the market.
Most analysts expect US production to soon exceed 12 million barrels per day, and perhaps even reach 13 million barrels per day by the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, the Fed needs to stop the balance reduction by the end of 2019, a member of the board of regulators, Lael Brainard, said on Thursday, pointing out that the central bank's bond portfolio could end up significantly higher than expected just a few months ago.
“The process of normalization of the balance really fulfilled the necessary tasks,” said Brainard in an interview with CNBC, adding that she would not want this tool to act contrary to the interest rate policy.
The Fed, following the January meeting, left rates unchanged and announced that it would be patient with regard to their possible increase this year.
Reducing the balance of the regulator, which now amounts to $ 4 trillion, “needs to be completed later this year,” Brainard said.
The Fed began to cut the balance from almost $ 4.5 trillion in October 2017 and hoped that this process would take several years.
However, despite the strengthening of the economy and the gradual increase in the Fed's rates, the balance reduction has been increasingly criticized. A February study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City showed that the regulator’s contraction in the bond portfolio is putting upward pressure on borrowing costs, which can convince the central bank to stop this process earlier than planned.
Brainard called the outlook for the US economy “resilient,” but noted increased downside risks, including a slowdown in economic growth in China and Europe, as well as trade uncertainty.
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