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* Brent, WTI futures prices are the highest since November
* Falling car sales in China point to weaker demand
* Increased US production could undermine OPEC efforts
* US gross output and drilling levels: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Eh2i9w (Add a comment, update prices)
SINGAPORE, Feb. 18 (Reuters) – Oil prices reached their highest level on Monday since last November, helped by OPEC-led supply cuts, US sanctions on Iran and US oil prices. Venezuela, and hope that the Sino-US trade dispute will end soon.
The international Brent futures were $ 66.66 per barrel at 07:46 GMT, up 41 cents (0.6%) from their last close. Brent had reached its highest level since November 2018 at $ 66.78 per barrel.
WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude futures were $ 56.07 per barrel, up 48 cents (0.9%) from closing. WTI prices also reached their highest level since November, at $ 56.13 a barrel earlier Monday.
Prices were supported by tighter market due to reduced supply organized by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some unaffiliated producers like Russia. The group of producing countries decided at the end of 2006 last year to reduce the production of 1.2 million barrels per day in order to prevent a significant swelling of supply.
US sanctions against oil exporters and Iran and Venezuela, members of OPEC, also supported crude oil prices.
Financial markets, including crude futures, were generally supported by the hope that the US and China would soon settle their trade disputes, which held back global economic growth.
"The reduction in OPEC production and the US sanctions imposed on Iran and Venezuela are limiting supply." The trade tensions that have weighed on global growth are showing signs of "slowdown". easing confidence in the markets and prospects for oil demand, "said Jasper Lawler, head of research at Future Courtage London Capital Group.
SLOW DOWN
Earlier during the trading day, the announcement of a decline in Chinese car sales in January had raised concerns about the changing fuel demand of this world's second largest consumer of fuel. oil.
Vehicle sales in China last month fell 15.8 percent from the same month in 2018, an industry badociation said Monday. This trend is in line with the 2018 trend, in which China recorded the first annual decline in vehicle sales recorded.
Sales of new energy vehicles in January, including electric vehicles, rose 140 percent, underlining expectations that car oil demand could peak in China in the coming years.
Meanwhile, crude oil production in the United States is on the rise, threatening the oil markets in the short term.
US energy companies have grown three times the number of oil rigs looking for new sources of supply, reaching 857, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in a weekly report last Friday.
This means that the number of US platforms is higher than a year ago, when fewer than 800 platforms were active.
(Report by Henning Gloystein, edited by Christian Schmollinger and Joseph Radford)
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