Crude oil prices wavered last week, finally ending the week higher with WTI closing above USD 44 /barrel and Brent at USD 46.97/barrel. Prices for crude dropped on Wednesday, only to bounce back by the end of the week. These movements were spurred by rumoursof discussions between Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy and oil-producing countries as well as comments made by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The rumoursof discussions in September were confirmed in a comment made by the Saudi minister, who said he would be meeting next month with other oil-producing countries, including to discuss what actions could be taken to stabilize global supply.
In addition, on Thursday the IEA said that global production may not be able to keep up with demand growth of approximately 1 million barrels/day from July to September.
However, it is worth noting that Iraq is open to working with major oil companies to grow its total production capacity over the next few years. The agreement on new investments could increase the country’s production from 250K to 300K barrels/day in 2017, which would slow the pace of increases in crude prices.
Diesel prices in Canadian dollars ended the week up over 5% at CAD 0.48/liter.
