Oil Set To Finish The Week On A Strong Note

Oil Video 20.11.20.

Libya’s Oil Production Gets Back To 1.25 Million Barrels Per Day

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has recently stated that its oil production has reached 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd), in line with pre-January levels.  In January 2020, the country’s oil industry was hit by blockades which pushed its oil production towards the 100,000 bpd level.

Libya’s oil production recovered much faster than analysts expected and put additional pressure on the oil market at the time when it was hit by European lockdowns.

Currently, Libya wants to increase its oil production to 1.7 million bpd. However, there’s also good news for the market – those extra barrels won’t come very fast. Now that Libya has managed to increase its production to pre-blockade levels, it will have to make additional investments.

According to recent reports, Libya has already talked with Total about potential investments, but it is obvious that extra oil will not be able to emerge overnight.

At this point, it is clear that the market was able to absorb a rapid increase of Libya’s oil production without big problems, although the recent months have brought volatile trading.

Oil Traders Bet On Vaccines

Today, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an application for emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine. Markets expect that it would be approved soon.

Meanwhile, oil continues its attempts to settle above the resistance at the $42 level despite the recent increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and introduction of additional virus containment measures by various states.

This week, oil traders managed to ignore all the bad news on the coronavirus front which means that oil enjoys strong support at current levels between $40 and $42.

The key question is whether this vaccine-related optimism will be sufficient enough to push oil above the recent highs at the $43 level.

In my opinion, oil will need several bullish inventory reports or another dose of positive vaccine news to settle above the $43 level and have a realistic chance to move above August highs at $43.75.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.