SINGAPORE: Oil prices stabilized in Asia Monday following sharp gains in the previous session as dealers predicted the end of volatile trading and the beaten-down commodity bottoming out, analysts said.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery fell 37 cents to $49.39 while Brent crude eased 28 cents to $62.30 in late-morning trade.
WTI advanced $1.59 while Brent gained a hefty $2.53 on Friday. WTI, after having fallen in early 2015 to a six-year low, has swung wildly in February, but finished the month a little more than $1.50 higher. By contrast, Brent gained about $12.
Crude oil has lost about 50 percent of its value since June, largely due to a global supply glut partially caused by surging US shale production.
“Although there is still a global supply glut, oil prices are on a general increasing trend especially with the falling rig count numbers indicating that US shale is responding to low prices,” Ken Hasegawa, energy trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo, told AFP.
