Today's Oil Prices

As of Monday 30th January, the price of oil in US dollars is 52.895 (-0.15%). The price in British pounds is £42.213 and in euros is 49.44.

US President Donald Trump has applied the breaks on the recent crude oil price rally, by signing executive orders clearing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, which is intended to boost the American energy sector.

Trump has also planned to cancel all the environment-related policy of the previous Obama administration.

Along with this, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 2.8 million barrels in domestic crude-oil supplies for the week ended Jan. 20 beating analysts expectations.

EIA expects oil to remain below $60 per barrel through end-2018. “Global production and consumption are both projected to increase through 2018, but consumption is expected to increase at a faster rate than production,” the EIA said.

"The market is having to filter a lot right now: Keystone, Trump and OPEC issues," Tim Pickering, founder and chief investment officer of Auspice Capital Advisors Ltd. in Calgary, said by phone.

"OPEC adherence appears to be a lot better than anticipated," reports Bloomberg.

OPEC cuts production by 1.5 million barrels a day

On the bullish side, OPEC has reduced output by more than 1.5 million barrels a day from the proposed 1.8 million barrels a day.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria have cut more than promised, however, a few other are yet to implement the production cuts according to their quotas.

According to Bloomberg, "Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Kuwait have already made deeper cuts than required, while Russia has been able to reduce supply faster than expected, ministers from the countries said as they arrived in Vienna on Saturday."

"Producers have already removed 1.5 million barrels a day from the market, according to Saudi Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih."

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouk chaired a meeting of the committee which has been formed to monitor compliance.

“The production data for January will come out on February 17 so we will look at the numbers and decide how committed everyone is," he said. "We will not accept any compliance rate other than 100 percent from all producers," reports Bloomberg.

With a mixture of bullish and bearish news, crude oil is likely to remain in a range until more clarity emerges.

Price of Oil: Impact on Central Bank and Currencies

BNP Paribas recently released a brief to clients focusing on the "spectre of protectionism".

The analysts highlight several points in relation to the oil price near-term influence:

UK BOE: "We expect the Bank of England to revise up its near-term growth forecast, but leave its inflation projection largely unchanged in light of a stronger GBP and flatter oil-price curve."

Russian currency: "Rising oil prices are supporting the rouble, suggesting further falls in inflation in the future".

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