London:

Oil extended gains to $47 (Dh172.63) a barrel as Saudi Arabia promised deep cuts to crude exports next month while the US shale boom showed signs of slowing.

Futures in New York added as much as 1.6 per cent after rising 1.3 per cent Monday. Saudi Arabia will cap shipments at 6.6 million barrels a day in August, 1 million lower than a year earlier, said Energy and Industry Minister Khalid Al-Falih. In the US, Halliburton Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. signalled that the investment in shale fields may finally be succumbing to the oil price slump.

Oil remains in a bear market amid concern rising global output will offset curbs by members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. While the Saudi comments at talks with oil producers in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Monday helped lift prices, the same meeting agreed to let Nigeria and Libya continue boosting production, slowing the market rebalancing.

“Yesterday’s Saudi decision to cut exports still lingers in the market,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief analyst for commodities at SEB Markets. The headlines that the US shale oil boom is easing are also driving futures higher, he said.

West Texas Intermediate for September delivery gained as much as 73 cents to $47.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:11am local time. Total volume traded was about 4 per cent below the 100-day average. Prices rose 57 cents to $46.34 on Monday.

Brent for September colony climbed as much as 79 cents, or 1.6 per cent, to $49.39 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices rose 54 cents to $48.60 on Monday. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.29 to WTI.

Saudi Arabia won’t act alone to balance the market and other nations should improve their implementation of supply cuts, Al-Falih said Monday. When Opec holds its next full ministerial meeting in November, it may need to discuss extending the supply cuts for longer, United Arab Emirates Minister of Energy Suhail Al Mazrouei said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

— Bloomberg