There are signs that market re-balancing will be gradual in 2019.

Axar.az reports citing the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The trajectory of Iran's production and exports remains important, according to the Oil Market Report of the IEA.

“In December, total exports increased slightly to over 1.3 million barrels per day (mb/d). With US waivers allowing Iran's major customers to buy higher volumes than was previously thought, more oil will remain in the market in the early part of 2019. Venezuela has seen the collapse of its oil industry slow during the second half of 2018 with production falling recently by about 10,000 b/d each month rather than by the 40,000 b/d we saw earlier in the year,” said the report.

IEA believes that the level of output in the world's biggest liquids producer, the United States, will once again be a major factor in 2019.

“We saw incredible and unexpected growth in total liquids production of 2.1 mb/d in 2018. For this year, we have left unchanged for now our forecast for growth of 1.3 mb/d. While the other two giants voluntarily cut output, the US, already the biggest liquids supplier, will reinforce its leadership as the world's number one crude producer. By the middle of the year, US crude output will probably be more than the capacity of either Saudi Arabia or Russia,” the report reads.