Oil production cuts this year by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies have given the U.S. the price incentive it needed to lift domestic output to its highest level on record, and maybe even helped fuel the recent mergers among the big oil companies.
“” This could be a prologue to a shift in focus from the battle for profits and the final price of crude, to a war for market share.” ” They may also be encouraged by the U.S. government’s move to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he said. Overall, U.S. oil companies are “in great strategic positions and if they have the capacity to turbo charge production if oil prices see $130, they would probably look to take advantage of that if other producers didn’t,” said Pazar.
“Noise around geopolitical events” have been causing “small but not withstanding adjustments in price,” said Katy Kaminski, chief research strategist at AlphaSimplex.