US crude oil rises to USD 57.92 pb in Asian trading

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (KUNA) -- US crude oil futures for February's delivery rose in Asian trading, 1.38 percent, reaching USD 57.92 pb on Monday compared to Friday's price.
Brent crude oil futures for February's delivery went up 1.42 percent to stand at US 62.25 pb, in contrast to Friday's rate.
The price difference between US light oil and Brent crude reached around USD 4.33 in today's trades.
Decline of the oil price in the Asian markets followed a bullish trend in the previous sessions, due to profit generation within short periods of time, in addition to a reported Saudi Arabia's declaration that it would slash its crude output in a bid to prop up the prices.
Oil prices have dramatically plummeted from the range of USD 110 pb barrel, a month ago, to the level of USD 50-60 pb. Riyadh had initially expressed no desire to cut the production.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi had attributed the oil prices' fall to hefty speculations in the markets and lack of cooperation from non-OPEC producers. His Kuwaiti counterpart, Ali Al-Omair, had also expressed his belief that there was no pressing need to decrease the output or hold an emergency OPEC meeting to address the "prices' crisis." The prices had nose-dived by half since June amid prevailing concerns about forecast fall of demand, supplies' glut and noticeable growth of shale oil, extracted mainly in the United States.
There have been conflicting reports about how competitive shale oil is, with some experts noting that production of newly-discovered oil is high, thus it will not be competitive vis a vis the other crudes, however, some experts have put the cost in the range of USD 20-30 pb, advising OPEC member states to revise their policies and abstain from making calculations that it will not compete with their exports of crudes.
Moreover, OPEC's recent decision to abstain from altering the cartel output is largely viewed as another the causes for the prices' decline. (end) mam.rk