Rebels ward off Qaddafi’s forces from Ajdabiya | oil outlook 18 Apri
Oil prices finished the week with moderate rises, however during the week they didn’t do much. The turmoil in the Middle East continues to escalate mainly in Libya, how this will affect the oil market for this week?
Let’s examine the main news for today, April 18th that might affect the crude oil markets:
Crude oil price during April
During April, up to April 15th, WTI crude oil price crawled up as it moderately inclined by 2.0%, and Brent oil rose by 4.6%. During last week, however crude oil prices didn’t do much as they have finished the week in a similar price level they have started the week.
The Australian dollar continues to show a strong correlation between its daily percent changes andBrent and WTI oil prices daily percent changes. The correlation is stronger between WTI and AUD/USD than Brent oil, however since the U.S. only imports a fraction of its oil from Australia, this put into question if this correlation has any merit or might indicate of another interfering variable that connects the two series together.
The recent news from Libya is that the rebels have managed to ward off Qaddafi’s forces from the city of Ajdabiya, in the central region of Libya.
In the mean time, Qaddafi’s forces keeps on bombing Misrata, which is the main rebel held city, in the western part of Libya.
NATO also continues its air assault on Qaddafi’s aircraft missiles sites near Libya’s capital Tripoli.
Libya’s oil production, which was set at 1.6 million barrels per day, fell by over 70% since the riots had begun in February 2011. During March, OPEC oil supply fell by 0.89 mbl/d to reach 29.2 mbl/d, which is roughly 0.6% of the global oil production; on the other hand, the oil production of non-OPEC countries rose by 0.2 mb/d to 53.3 mbl/d.
Germany seized $6 billion Libyan funds
According to the Spiegel , Germany has recently seized Libyan funds worth of over six billion USD. Germany representatives said that the UN could use these funds to assist the Libyan people in humanity assistance.
Source: http://www.tradingnrg.com/rebels-ward-off-qaddafis-forces-from-ajdabiya-oil-outlook-18-april/
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