As the Dollar Index surged post-manufacturing data, WTI Crude began to lose altitude from its overnight ramp. Combined with ongoing concerns over Libya’s production ramp, crude just crashed from over 55.00 to under 53.00 in minutes on heavy volume…
It seems the catalyst was the USD index breaking recent highs…
But as Bloomberg notes, Libya, the holder of Africa’s biggest crude reserves, is ramping up output from its biggest oil field again after two years of internal conflict, the latest reminder of just how vulnerable OPEC’s quest to clear a global crude glut might be.
The Sharara deposit in the Libya’s south west will ship almost 1.9 million barrels this month from its Zawiya port near Tripoli, according to a loading program obtained by Bloomberg. That compares with a pumping rate from the field of almost 9 million barrels a month as recently as late 2014, before internal conflict halted flows.
If maintained, the amount Libya is pumping would be about 125,000 barrels a day higher than the North African country was producing in October, thestarting point for when most other OPEC nations are supposed to limit their collective supply.
Mustafa Sanalla, the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said Dec. 21 that output would reach 900,000 barrels a day early of this year. By hitting that target, Libya would replace about one third of the supplies being cut by other OPEC nations.
via http://ift.tt/2iLwufT Tyler Durden