Business & Money | Saturday 18 April, 2015 12:30 pm |

Oman crude oil prices on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange settled above $60/b for the first time in four months, as prices continued to climb on signs of a slowdown in US shale oil production.

Front-month June DME Oman futures contract settled 12:30 Dubai time at $60.22/b, up $1.94 on the previous close and the highest price since December 12, 2014. Oman prices have now gained $16.87/b from the six year low of $43.35/b in mid January, or 39%.

The renewed strength this week came as the US Energy Information Administration forecast that shale production is set to fall by 57,000 barrels a day in May, suggesting US domestic output is close to peaking. Additionally, the latest inventory data from the US showed a smaller weekly build in oil stocks than the market had expected.

Christopher Fix, Chief Executive of DME, said: “The oil markets are certainly seeing some more bullish momentum at the moment, but whichever way the price goes from here, I’d expect continued volatility to be a major part of the story. In the first eight months of 2014, DME witnessed price moves of over 2% in just 2 occasions, and since October 2014 till date DME has seen around 50 daily price moves of the same magnitude.”