WTI and Brent Climb Above $45 on Tuesday

Oil futures settled above $45 a barrel on Tuesday as news of potential OPEC production curbs for Libya and Nigeria and a lower forecast for 2018 domestic crude output sparked a jump in settlements, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August West Texas Intermediate crude rose 64 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $45.04 a barrel.

On the London ICE Futures Exchange, September Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 64 cents, or 1.4%, to end trading at $47.52 a barrel.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration lowered its WTI and Brent crude price forecasts for 2017 and 2018, cutting next year’s domestic production forecast by 1% to 9.90 million barrels a day. On an annual basis, 2018 domestic production remains on track to reach a record high.

Facing pressure to curb global supplies, OPEC may be compelled to consider including Libya and Nigeria in future production cuts. Both countries are OPEC members but currently exempt from the agreement to cut global output by 2%. The exemption was meant to allow their production to rebound following years of fighting between the countries’ governments and local insurgents, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch. Libya and Nigeria have been invited to attend OPEC’s monitoring panel meeting on July 24 in Moscow.

Traders and analysts are looking ahead to monthly oil reports from OPEC and the International Energy Agency. These reports will be issued on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The American Petroleum Institute’s weekly U.S. petroleum supplies data will be released later Tuesday while the EIA’s weekly supply report will be released on Wednesday.

Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the government agency to report a decline of 2.6 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ending July 7. Inventories dropped by more than 6 million barrels the previous week.

Natural gas prices traded at their highest levels for this month as warm weather forecasts raised demand prospects. August natural gas settled at $3.047 per million British thermal units, up 11.8 cents, or 4%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.