Oil Prices Rise Slow and Steady on Monday

Crude oil futures remained steady, settling slightly higher on Monday as industry analysts contend a rebalancing process is in the works, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, November West Texas Intermediate crude added 29 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $49.58 a barrel.

December Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 17 cents, or 0.3%, to close at $55.79 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.

Mohammad Barkindo, OPEC’s Secretary-General agreed on Sunday that there was a “growing consensus” that a rebalancing process was under way. Those remarks implied extending or expanding the production curbs under agreement by OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

Traders are now awaiting the release of oil market data from OPEC on Wednesday and the International Energy Agency on Thursday.

While some refineries shut down in the Gulf of Mexico in preparation for Hurricane Nate, the weather disruption had little effect on the domestic oil market. Some U.S. export terminals have already reopened but the temporary closures will distort the domestic inventory data by making it more difficult to assess the American oil market, according to industry analysts.

Further uncertainty is anticipated as President Trump is expected to refuse to certify that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 international nuclear agreement, triggering additional sanctions against Iran. Trump has referred to the Iran agreement as “the worst deal ever.”

“The U.S. might decertify Iran and that is another thing that we will be watching for,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at oil consultancy Petromatrix. “It can bring an additional layer of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Jakob.

Iran increased its oil production after international sanctions against the nation were removed in early 2016 as part of a nuclear deal with six world powers.

Meanwhile, November natural gas futures dropped 3 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $2.833 per million British thermal units back on the New York Mercantile Exchange.