Oil halts slide as Iraq says close to full OPEC cut commitment

Oil halted its decline as Iraq said it’s close to implementing its share of pledged output curbs agreed with Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to trim bloated global inventories and stabilise the market. Futures rose 0.3 per cent in New York after dropping 0.9 per cent on Monday. Iraq, the second-biggest OPEC producer, has reduced supply by 180,000 barrels a day and will cut a further 30,000 a day by the end of the month, Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said in an interview. In the US, crude inventories probably expanded by 2.25 million barrels last week, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before government data on Wednesday. Oil has held above $50 a barrel since the OPEC and 11 other nations agreed late last year to curb supply by about 1.8 million barrels a day. While Saudi Arabia says more than 80 per cent of the targeted reduction has been implemented since the deal took effect on January 1, the International Energy Agency predicted a rebound in shale output as prices rise. US drillers last week added the most rigs to fields since 2013. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery was at $52.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 13 cents, at 8.31 am in Hong Kong. Total volume traded was about 86 per cent below the 100-day average. The contract fell 47 cents to $52.75 on Monday. Front-month prices have averaged about $52 a barrel since the start of December. Brent for March settlement lost 26 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $55.23 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Monday. The global benchmark crude ended the session at a premium of $2.48 to WTI. (Perry Williams and Ben Sharples/Bloomberg)