Investing.com - Crude oil prices rose in Asia on Tuesday as investors kept a tight eye on disruptions from Nigeria and political and economic turmoil in Venezuela.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for June delivery gained 0.27% to $47.85 a barrel.
Later Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will release its estimates of crude stockpiles at the end of last week. The figures will be followed on Wednesday by more closely-watched data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Overnight, crude surged to fresh six-month highs on Monday as investors reacted to a string of production outages in Nigeria and Venezuela, as well as a bullish call on near-term prices from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:NYSE:GS), providing some signals that the persistent supply glut on global energy markets may be on the verge of easing.
Energy traders kept a close eye on instability in Nigeria and Venezuela on Monday, as crude prices continued to move upward. On Monday afternoon, Reuters reported that Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA will honor all debt commitments this year while acknowledging the need for new debt restructuring in the coming months. Venezuela, which derives 95% of its total exports from oil, has seen its deficits soar amid crashing oil prices over the last two years. Every drop of $1 per barrel in oil, results in $685 million in crude income for the state, according to analysts from PDVSA. Oil is down considerably from its peak of $115 a barrel in June, 2014. PDVSA, meanwhile, is reportedly facing up to $5 billion in debt payments over the next year.
The report comes in the wake of comments from Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, in which the Venezuelan president threatened to take over the country's idle factories which have remained shut due to broad price controls. Maduro also extended the nation's emergency economic powers by 60 days as protesters lined the streets in Caracas calling for his ouster.
In Nigeria, meanwhile, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:NYSE:XOM) halted exports from the nation's largest crude stream in the wake of a wave of attacks by an insurgent militant group on oil pipelines in the Southern region of the country. Combined with other closures by Royal Dutch Shell A (NYSE:LON:RDSa) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Nigerian production has tumbled to 1.65 million barrels per day, its lowest level in more than a decade.
Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs said in a note to investors that it sees a re-balance in energy markets in the second half of the year pushing prices to near $50 a barrel. The forecasts reverse a call from earlier this year when analysts from the influential Wall Street bank noted that global oil prices could touch down to $20. Analysts from Goldman Sachs cited increase demand in India, China and Russia for the reversal.
"The oil market has gone from nearing storage saturation to being in deficit much earlier than we expected," Goldman analysts said in the note. "The physical re-balancing of the oil market has finally started."