Singapore — Oil prices slipped away from 2019 highs on Wednesday, with surging US supply and slowing economic growth tempering upward pressure from supply cuts led by producer club Opec and from Washington’s sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures hit 2019 highs of $56.39 a barrel on Wednesday but had slipped back to $56.15 a barrel by 5.23am GMT, which was slightly above their last settlement. International Brent crude futures were at $66.33 a barrel, down 12c, or 0.2%, from their last close, though still not far off their 2019 high of $66.83 a barrel from Monday. Oil prices have been supported by supply cuts led by producer cartel Opec. Opec-member and top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is expected to reduce shipments of light crude oil to Asia in March as part of the effort to tighten markets. Opec as well as some non-affiliated producers such as Russia agreed late in 2018 to cut output by 1.2-million barrels a day to prevent a large suppl...
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