WTI and Brent Crude Futures Build on Fifth Consecutive Gain

Buoyed by expectations that OPEC will extend production cuts, oil prices continued to climb on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

July West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 34 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $51.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after taking over as a lead contract at Monday’s close.

July Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 28 cents, or 0.5%, to end trading at $54.15 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Prices for both benchmarks ended at their highest levels in more than a month.

Oil prices have now tallied their fifth session climb in a row, with July WTI crude rebounding by around 11% over the past two weeks, as expectations grow for an extension to the production cut agreement led by OPEC members who will convene on Thursday in Vienna.

Meanwhile, oil prices briefly saw a pullback following news early Tuesday of the 2018 U.S. budget proposal, which includes the sale of nearly half of the nation’s strategic reserves over the course of 10 years.

Rising U.S. oil production has been a key concern. The oil market will get updates on domestic supplies from the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration early Wednesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a decline of 2.8 million barrels in crude oil stocks for the week ending May 19.

Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, June natural gas settled at $3.219 per million British thermal units, down 11.1 cents, or 3.3%.