A signal that the International Energy Agency has confidence the oil markets will rebalance over the next couple of years pushed crude prices higher on Monday. March West Texas Intermediate crude added $1.84 to settle at $31.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The March contract expired, so April WTI begins its run as the front month contract on Tuesday at $33.39 a barrel. On the London ICE Futures Exchange, April Brent crude gained $1.68 to end trade at $34.69 a barrel.
The IEA released its medium-term oil outlook report on Monday. It indicated a rebalancing of supply and demand by 2017. It also predicted U.S. production will drop by 600,000 barrels a day in 2016.
March natural gas inched up by 1.7 cents to settle at $1.821 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
