re: WTI Crude north of $72 today. Where is everybody?

quote:

---

Barclays sees international benchmark Brent crude to average $68 a barrel in the second quarter, but sees crude prices falling into correction in the back half of 2018.

Geopolitical tension in Syria, Yemen and Iran will keep oil prices elevated over the short term.

Barclays' head of energy commodities research lays out four reasons price support could falter.

---

quote:

---

First, Barclays said the supply impact of renewed sanctions on Iran is being overstated and says the market has already priced in falling output from Venezuela.

Second, American oil production is consistently rising to record highs, despite U.S. drillers exercising more financial discipline.

Third, the supportive oil market backdrop in the first quarter of 2018 was partly due to one-off factors like severe weather that sidelined some U.S. oil supply.

Last and most importantly, Barclays said it expects the oil market will swing back into surplus in the final months of the year and remain oversupplied through 2019.

---