Oil weakens after early gains, but is underpinned by tightening supply
London — Oil prices weakened following early gains on Wednesday, but remained underpinned by tightening supply and strong global demand. Tighter fundamentals have lifted both crude futures benchmarks about 13% above levels in early December, helped by production curbs by oil cartel Opec and Russia, as well as by healthy demand growth. Brent crude futures were at $69.94 a barrel at 9.46am GMT, down 21c from the last close, after hitting $69.37. On Monday, Brent rose to $70.37 a barrel, its highest since December 2014. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.60 a barrel, down 13c on the day and down from $63.89 earlier. WTI hit $64.89 on Tuesday, also the highest since December 2014. "Currently there is no reason to believe there has been a significant change in the underlying fundamental sentiment and the sell-off is, so far, viewed as a technical correction," said Tamas Varga, analyst with PVM Oil Associates in London. Opec and Russia have been curbing production ...
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