By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, March 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on
Monday, with Brent drifting near $70 a barrel, propped up by
output cuts from major producers and optimism about global
economic and fuel demand recovery in the second half of the
year.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 for May gained 23 cents, or
0.3%, to $69.45 a barrel by 0102 GMT while U.S. West Texas
Intermediate crude CLc1 for April was at $65.90 a barrel, up
29 cents, or 0.4%.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has cut the supply of
April-loading crude to at least four north Asian buyers by up to
15%, while meeting the normal monthly requirements of Indian
refiners, refinery sources told Reuters on Friday. The supply cuts come as the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as
OPEC+, decided earlier this month to extend most of its supply
cuts into April.
Investors are expecting China to release positive economic
data on Monday, supporting forecasts of stronger growth at the
world's second largest oil consumer.
"China data due today could be highly influential," Michael
McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney,
wrote.
"Both industrial production and retail sales are expected to
show very strong bounces, largely due to the year on year
compassion with a Lunar New Year holiday and lockdown affected
period last year."
In the United States, oil refiners' weekly capacity were
seen up 1.6 million barrels per day, research company IIR Energy
said on Friday, as more plants resume operations following
outages during the severe winter storm in Texas last month.
Separately, U.S. energy firms have cut the number of oil and
natural gas rigs operating by one in the first weekly drop since
November, according to Baker Hughes Co.