Brent oil catches bid on supply concerns
Brent oil ticked higher this Wednesday morning in Asia on concerns that Turkey that it could cut crude exports from Iraq's Kurdistan region.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was up 18 cents or 0.4% at $58.62/barrel. Prices fell 1% on Tuesday, largely due to overbought conditions on technical charts after earlier hitting $59.49, its highest since July 2015.
As per Reuters report, "Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan repeated on Tuesday a threat to cut off the pipeline that carries 500,000-600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, intensifying pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over its independence referendum." This, coupled with 1.8 million bpd of output reductions by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers, raised concerns of tighter supply.
Oil traders await the release of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). US crude inventories are seen rising for a fourth straight week, while refined product stockpiles likely fell last week, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.