Commodities: Crude mixed after Kuwait confirms great Opec compliance with output pledge

Crude-oil futures are trading off their early session lows to be mildly mixed late in the afternoon, thanks to a Kuwait official confirming Opec members' increasing compliance with output pledges made last year to ease global oversupply.

At about 15:22 GMT, Nymex-priced West Texas Intermediate crude was down 0.12% to $48.43 a barrel, and Intercontinental Exchange-traded Brent was up 0.14% to $51.44 a barrel.

Both grades of the black liquid were moderately lower in early deals, following on from a rise in Baker Hughes' US rig count late last week amid a chronic global supply glut.

"The recent bearish reports of US crude inventories surging to record highs have renewed the oversupply concerns," said FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga.

That had ultimately exposed oil prices to downside risks this month, he added in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Issam Almarzooq noted the rise in US crude stores for the week before last, which sparked a price decline last week. This followed Opec output-cut pledges made late in 2016.

Almarzooq on Monday confirmed compliance with those curbs among Opec nations had risen to 95% in February, from 91% in January.

He added that Kuwait wanted the oil cartel to extend output cuts beyond June. With global oil inventories at 280m barrels, reducing them "within one or two months isn't easy," said Almarzooq.

"But I am certain and fully confident that the commitment of all the countries with this agreement will bear fruit in the next few months," the minister told Kuwait's official news agency, Kuna.

This was a point noted by Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

"Of course, these changes take time to have an impact and non-OPEC compliance is still a little low but with an extension to the deal in doubt, prices are reverting back towards pre-deal levels, although I doubt we’ll get close to the lows any time soon," he said.

Meantime, on Comex, gold was up 0.18% to $1203.6 an ounce, with silver up 0.31% to $16.98 an ounce and copper up 1.41% to 263.15 cents a pound.

Three-month industrial metals on London Metals Exchange were all ahead. Zinc led, followed by copper, aluminum and then tin.

Among agriculturals, Chicago Board of Trade-priced corn was down 0.89% to 361 cents a bushel, with wheat down 1.93% to 432 cents a bushel.

On ICE, cocoa was up 3.26% to $1997 a MT, with cotton No.2 down 0.26% to 77.09 cents a pound. Live cattle rose 0.7% to 108.25 cents a pound.