Oil in Global Economy Series: Key oil market updates

While the oil market continues to focus on supply/demand fundamentals, these are some key updates that you need to keep a tab on,

• U.S. oil rig count: The United States has already proved to be a major influencing factor in the global oil market as production reached 9.54 million barrels per day before declining sharply over the impacts of Hurricane Nate. To keep a tab on U.S. oil supplies, one needs to keep oneself updated on the numbers of oil rigs operating in the United States. As of latest report, the numbers of operating rigs have declined for a third consecutive week to 736, which is the lowest numbers of operating rigs since early June. The number of rigs declined by more than 4 percent since August.
   
• OPEC and Shale producers: OPEC is looking for cooperation from U.S. shale producers to make the OPEC/N-OPEC agreement to reduce global supplies by 1.76 million barrels per day, more effective. However, the U.S. shale industry is not like a cartel, which makes a supply ceiling cooperation difficult.
   
• Iraq-Kurdistan: Last week’s Iraq-Kurdistan conflict, where Iraqi army after amassing large military forces along the Kurdish border in the previous week launched military takeover off vast regions of Kirkuk led to a drop in oil supplies in the region.  The supplies declined from 0.61 million barrels per day to 0.18 million barrels per day. The latest reports are suggesting that supplies are recovering and reached 0.213 million barrels per day as of today.