Crude prices settle higher as the dollar inches lower

Crude prices tilted higher as the dollar index slipped to near its lowest since November 9, following earlier data from the U.S., the world's largest economy, and ahead of OPEC's meeting in Vienna on Thursday. 

As of 05:58 GMT, U.S. crude futures due on June 16 rose 0.08% to $51.17 a barrel from the opening of $51.13, while Brent crude futures due on July 15 added 0.06% to $53.90 a barrel from the opening of $53.87, as the dollar index inched down to 96.97 from 96.98, marking a six-month low. 

U.S. president Donald Trump proposed his first budget plan, aiming to cut government spending by $3.6 trillion and balance the budget in the next decade, while proposing to sell half the country's strategic crude reserves, estimated at 687.7 million barrels, in specific locations in Texas and Louisiana, while closing two of the current four locations for reserves in the Gulf coast. 

Trump aims to sell 270 million barrels of the U.S. oil reserves in the next decade, which would provide $500 million in the next 2018 financial year, and $16.6 billion in the next decade, while closing a gasoline reserve location in the Northeast, constructed in 2012 after the Sandy storm froze gasoline supplies to gas stations in New York during the storm. 

Investors also look forward to global producers, including OPEC and Russia, to formally agree on extending the 1.8 million bpd output cuts for nine more months until March 2018 in an attempt to achieve balance and curtail global crude inventories, which are at five-year highs currently, while U.S. shale production rose considerably in recent months.