Oil advances again, rises briefly above $30 a barrel

Oil advanced on Monday, rising briefly above $30 a barrel in New York for the first time in almost a week.

West Texas Intermediate futures rose 32 cents to $29.76 when electronic trading ended at 1 p.m. in New York, after gaining as much as 71 cents earlier. The New York Mercantile Exchange floor was closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday, and trades will be booked Tuesday.

Brent for April settlement rose 3 cents to settle at $33.39 a barrel after reaching $33.97 in intraday trading on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

The gains came even as Iran loaded its first cargo to Europe since international sanctions ended.

Oil prices are down about 20 percent this year. While the outlook for increased Iranian exports threatens to further boost record oil stockpiles, major companies including Chevron and Anadarko Petroleum are curbing spending on exploration and development of new resources. Crude surged 12 percent, the most in seven years, on Friday after the United Arab Emirates repeated OPEC’s readiness to engage with other producers.

“The oversupply will decrease sharply over the course of the year,” Andy Sommer, an analyst at Axpo Trading in Dietikon, Switzerland, said by e-mail. “Developments in supply and demand mean the market will very closely avoid hitting tank- top levels.”

In the U.S., drillers idled rigs for an eighth week to the lowest level since January 2010, according to data from Baker Hughes. The number of active rigs dropped by 28 to 439, the company said on its website Friday. A group of 44 North American exploration and production firms are planning to spend $78 billion on capital projects this year, down from $101 billion last year, according to IHS Inc.

A tanker for France’s Total was being loaded Sunday at Kharg Island while vessels chartered for Chinese and Spanish companies were due to arrive later the same day, an Iranian oil ministry official said.

Iran, which was the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries before sanctions were intensified in 2012, is seeking to boost output by 1 million barrels a day and regain market share after penalties were lifted. Total, Spanish refiner Compania Espanola de Petroleos and Russia’s Lukoil PJSC all booked cargoes to sail from Kharg Island to European ports, according to shipping reports compiled by Bloomberg earlier this month.

China’s crude imports declined 20 percent in January from December to the lowest in three months as state refiners slowed operations amid swelling stockpiles of fuel.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 9:45 AM with the headline "Oil advances again, rises briefly above $30 a barrel."