by Calculated Risk on 5/22/2016 10:30:00 AM

From the WSJ: Oil Prices Lower but Post Weekly Gain

U.S. crude for June delivery settled down 41 cents, or 0.9%, at $47.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose 3.3% this week and are up 6.9% in the past two weeks.

Brent, the global benchmark, fell 9 cents, or 0.2%, to $48.72 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Prices rose 1.9% this week and 7.4% in the past two weeks.

Production outages around the world have fueled gains in oil prices in recent weeks, chipping away from the oversupply that has plagued the market for nearly two years. Wildfires in Canada have taken some oil fields there out of commission, while disruptions in Nigeria and Libya have also given prices a lift.

Click on graph for larger image

This graph shows WTI and Brent spot oil prices from the EIA. (Prices today added).  According to Bloomberg, WTI is at $48.41 per barrel today, and Brent is at $48.72

Prices really collapsed at the end of 2014 - and then rebounded a little - and then collapsed again.

Some of the recent rebound is due to production outages, and some is probably seasonal.