Oil prices expected to stabilise in 2017

Oil prices will remain within the range of $55 to $60 a barrel during 2017, a new report by the Qatar National Bank has predicted. The bank said that changes in US shale breakeven prices are likely to determine oil prices this year.

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The report quoted International Energy Agency data to show that the global oil market was oversupplied by an average of 400,000 barrels per day in 2016. Demand is expected to grow by 1.4 million barrels per day in 2017, which would totally wipe out the surplus.

OPEC members and independent producers began earlier this year to cut production by 1.2 million barrels and 558,000 barrels per day, respectively, in an attempt to stabilise the global oil markets. At the end of November 2016, the organisation signed a comprehensive agreement to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day for six months, effective from 1 January.