Oil prices steady as end of European outages counters US disruption

Oil prices steadied on Monday after climbing more than 2% in the previous session on output disruptions in U.S. crude-producing regions and tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Brent crude futures dipped 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $65.81 a barrel by 1251 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 13 cents, or 0.2%, at $60.94.

Both benchmarks notched weekly gains of 2.7% to close on Friday at their highest since January 14.

Kazakhstan is poised to resume production at its biggest oilfield, the energy ministry said on Monday, but industry sources said volumes were still low and a force majeure on CPC Blend exports was still in place.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which operates Kazakhstan’s main exporting pipeline, said on Sunday that its Black Sea terminal had returned to full loading capacity after maintenance was completed at one of its three mooring points.

“Winter storm Fern struck the U.S. coast, forcing shut-ins in major crude and natural gas producing regions and adding stress to the power grid,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, adding that oil markets are experiencing a mild upswing as outages tighten physical flows.