Oil benchmarks strengthened in Asia on hopes persistently low price is crowding out high cost US shale producers.
At the time of writing, WTI oil futures were up 27 cents or 0.78% at $34.84/barrel. Brent futures were up 24 cents or 0.65% at $37.31/barrel. The total oil stocks in the US rose to 518 million barrels; highest since 1930.
However, the markets are taking a note of the declining trend in production. The US government data, which revealed huge stock buildup, also said the output fell for a sixth straight week to 9.08 million barrels a day. This was the lowest oil production since November 2014.
Low prices are also weighing over OPEC and non-OPEC producers. Nigerian oil minister was on the wires yesterday stating the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting is scheduled on March 20th.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)