BP Plc (BP)

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Oil stockpiles rebalance to five-year norm if OPEC extends cuts, BP CFO says

An extension of oil production cuts into H2 would help rebalance the oil market, bringing global crude inventories back to a five-year average by the end of the year and support prices at ~$55/bbl, BP (BP +2.1%) CFO Brian Gilvary says.

"If the OPEC cuts get rolled into the second half of the year, that will underpin oil prices. If they don't get rolled into the second half of the year, we will continue to see more volatility," Gilvary says.

"From BP's perspective, we're managing things around $50-55 a barrel, [and] that's probably the range we would expect for the rest of the year," the CFO says.

Oil stockpiles in industrialized nations were slightly more than 3B barrels at the end of February, ~330M barrels above the five-year average but with the market showing more balance, the International Energy Agency said last month.