This far into 2017, week after oil trading week has ended on very familiar territory with both Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) – the world most watched crude benchmarks – stuck above the $50 per barrel mark.
While that gives crude producers some much needed price stability, the market seems to be utterly devoid of drivers exerting a pull towards $60, which some had impatiently forecast after 11 major global exporters, including Russia, joined hands with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to institute co-ordinated cuts collectively designed to take 1.788 million barrels per day (bpd) out of the global supply pool at the start of 2017.
