WTI is up again today after a strong rally closing last week. Currently sitting at $48.16, the price of oil is up close to ten dollars from $38.34 compared to last Monday.
The rise comes as the EIA reported estimates of U.S. crude oil production in June 2015 at 9.3 million barrels per day (b/d), a decrease of approximately 100,000 b/d from the revised May 2015 figure. The largest revisions in volume include decreases of oil production in Texas (ranging from about 100,000 b/d to 150,000 b/d) and increases in the federal Gulf of Mexico (ranging from about 10,000 b/d to 50,000 b/d). U.S. crude oil production for the first six months of 2015 averaged 9.4 million b/d.
The climb in price also comes with the news that OPEC said it’s ready to talk to other producers to achieve ‘fair prices’. OPEC, responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s supply, is willing to talk but “on a level playing field,” according to the OPEC Bulletin, the group’s monthly publication.