Oil prices rise on OPEC supply cuts, but surging US output and economic slowdown weigh

Traders said oil markets were currently tightening.

In Venezuela, oil exports have plunged by 40 percent to around 920,000 barrels per day (bpd) since the US government slapped sanctions against its petroleum industry on January 28.

This drop comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Venezuela is a founding member, has led efforts since the start of the year to withhold around 1.2 million bpd of supply to prop up prices."Global (oil) markets appear tighter than many anticipated for this time of year, but scores of unsold barrels can pile up quickly and saturate regions," Canada's RBC Capital Markets said in a research note on oil markets.

Despite this, there are signs that point to a more amply supplied market heading further into 2019.

The US Energy Department said on Thursday it was offering up to 6 million barrels of crude from national emergency reserves to raise funds to modernize the US strategic oil reserves.

Additionally, US crude output has hit a record of more than 12 million bpd, pushing exports to an unprecedented 3.6 million bpd in February.

Investment bank RBC estimated that oil from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico port of Houston "can economically move anywhere globally when priced at a discount of $1.70 per barrel relative to the waterborne Brent benchmark".

Crude loading from Houston last traded at $6.60 a barrel over WTI, which still put it at a discount of more than $2.15 per barrel to Brent. On the demand side, a Reuters poll showed analysts expect global fuel demand to slow this year amid a broad economic slowdown.

China's February factory activity fell for a third month as the world's second-largest economy continued to struggle with weak export orders, a private survey showed on Friday.

The weakness is being felt across the region. South Korea's exports contracted at their steepest pace in nearly three years in February as demand from its major market China cooled further in yet another sign of faltering momentum in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Despite this, fuel consumption especially in Asia's developing economies, which are key drivers of global oil demand, is so far holding up.

India's diesel consumption, for instance, is expected to rise to a record this year amid a strong expansion of its heavy-duty vehicles amid economic growth of around 7 percent.