Cold Spell Supports Oil

 | Jan 25, 2016 08:47AM ET

Cold spell supports oil

On Friday the global oil prices edged up more than 6% due to the brisk demand on residual oil amid cold spell in Europe and US. The daily prices growth was after their record 25-year fall in January so market participants see it as correction. Will oil prices continue rising? Let’s study the European oil grade – Brent.

Since the start of the year the Brent oil prices slumped 24% hitting a fresh record low since 2003. The main reason was the supply glut in global markets which formed in 2014 due to the US shale plays development. These days the Western countries have lifted the international economic sanctions against Iran. The IEA expects the oil production to increase by 0.6bn barrels a day and the global oil demand to surpass the supply by 1.5 mln barrels a day in the first half of 2016. Meanwhile, the Iran’s officials stated they were planning to increase the oil production by scarce 0.5mln barrels a day. In theory, they may postpone it till they regain access to the state funds frozen in foreign banks. All these factors postpone the flood of Iran’s oil to the global markets supporting the oil prices. IEA forecasts the global oil demand will increase 1.2mln barrels a day in 2016. The key factor of price growth is the cold spell in Europe and US. The US National Weather Service estimates the snowfall total may surpass 61cm in Washington while in the West Coast region it may edge up to 75cm. Low oil prices made the Canada’s shade oil companies lose $15 per each barrel sold and the production is maintained only by money loans. The same story is in Venezuela and Columbia. According to the Wood Mackenzie consultancy, the oilfield development projects to the gross value of $380bn have been frozen since 2014. So, the further massive oil production build-up is unlikely. Nevertheless, the demand may contract in case of the global economic slowdown. Such concerns may put the brakes on the oil prices rebound.