Kuwait oil minister Khaled al-Fadhel has expressed concerns over uncertainties in global oil demand because of US-China trade war and rising US shale oil production. However, he expects the oil market to attain a state of balance by the end of this year with regards to falling crude oil inventories in the face of strong demand.

The uncertainties caused by the trade tensions between US and China are making it more challenging for OPEC+ to take a call on whether or not to continue with production cuts in H2 2019. The OPEC+ had agreed to cut crude production by 1.2 million bpd from 1 January 2019 till June 2019 to prevent crude oil prices from weakening further.

In addition to the trade war, the possibility of US imposing further sanctions on Venezuela, escalating political tensions in Libya and growth in US shale oil production have also contributed to the uncertainty in supply and demand for crude oil in global markets.

At the time of writing, WTI crude oil continues to trade below the 60.00 level at $59.07 per barrel.