Niger Delta terrorists, Saudi purge: Oil prices highest since mid-2015

BRENT crude futures were trading 39 cents higher at $62.46 a barrel by 1339 GMT, on Monday after hitting a session peak of $62.90, a 28-month high.

This was the highest point the commodity attained since July 2015 as a number of factors continued to push the market momentum.

In Nigeria, Niger Delta terrorists threatened to resume bombing oil installations after a period of relative peace while Saudi prince cemented his power over the weekend with an anti-corruption crackdown, while markets continued to tighten.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 20 cents to $55.84 a barrel, having broken above $56 for the first time since July 2015.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, tightened his grip with the arrest of royals, ministers and investors, including prominent billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal and the powerful head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah.

Analysts for now do not see Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, changing its policy of boosting crude prices.

Prince Mohammed’s reforms include a plan to list parts of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco next year, and a higher oil price is seen as beneficial for its market capitalisation.

“We believe the kingdom will stick to the OPEC+ deal and continue to focus on reducing global oil inventories,” UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that while there is “satisfaction” with a production-cutting deal between the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPED) and other producers led by Russia, the “job is not done yet”.

OPEC is expected to extend a cut of around 1.8 million barrels per day into the whole of 2018.

“Uncertainty about core regime stability has gone up a bit, so a higher risk premium is justified,” Samuel Ciszuk, a senior adviser to the Swedish Energy Agency, told the Reuters Global capitalization.

Also boosting oil prices, U.S. energy companies cut eight oil rigs last week, to 729, in the biggest reduction since May 2016.