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Benchmark crude oil prices, which hit almost 13-year lows
earlier in 2016, surged nearly 20 percent in April on a softer
dollar and lower U.S. production. However, market participants
remain skeptical about the sustainability of the rally given a
persistent global supply overhang.
"The recent rise in prices is not something I think that the
companies are willing to reverse their investment trends on,"
Moniz told reporters on Monday after the G7 energy ministers'
meeting in Kitakyushu, southwestern Japan.
"Rig counts in the United States are quite low ... a rebalancing
of global supply and demand looks to be quite credible, roughly
speaking on a one-year time scale.
"That may change the dynamic but structurally we clearly
continue to have a very very large inventory of oil," he added.
"We are still unbalanced."
U.S. oil output is expected to drop by 600,000 barrels per day
(bpd) this year from a year ago as producers respond to low
crude prices, Moniz said, citing U.S. Department of Energy
projections.
In the LNG market, Moniz said exports had started as the United
States had authorized the shipment of more than 120 billion
cubic meters of natural gas a year to non-Free Trade Agreement
countries.
"First six, maybe now seven, since we've been traveling, LNG
cargoes have left the Gulf of Mexico actually for three
continents, including Japan," he said.
Amid the background of growing LNG production elsewhere such as
in Australia, "we expect LNG markets to be quite well supplied".
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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