(Reuters file photo)SINGAPORE: Oil prices were stable on Wednesday, not far off mid-2015 highs reached the previous session, as strong demand and ongoing efforts led by Opec and Russia to curb production tightened the market. With the pipeline outages resolved and the protests in Iran showing no signs of impacting its oil production, Hansen said there was potential for a price downturn in early 2018, especially due to rising US output. "It is only a matter of time before the 10 million barrel per day (bpd) production target will be reached," Hansen said. US oil production has risen by almost 16% since mid-2016, hitting 9.75 million bpd at the end of last year. For the whole of 2017, however, Russian output rose to an average output of 10.98 million bpd, compared with 10.96 million bpd in 2016 and 10.72 million bpd in 2015.

Source: Bangkok Post January 03, 2018 02:03 UTC