OPEC cautious on oil outlook, even though global glut is gone

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC said the oil market outlook in the second half of the year is highly uncertain even though the oil producers group's figures show a global glut is gone, suggesting exporters will be in no rush to fully relax output curbs at a meeting next week.

OPEC, Russia and other non-OPEC producers have been cutting output since January 2017 to get rid of excess supply. The deal's main goal was to reduce oil inventories in developed nations to that of the five-year average.

In a report on Tuesday, OPEC said inventories in those nations in April fell to 26 million barrels below the five-year average. That's down from 340 million barrels above the average in January 2017.

Still, OPEC in the report was cautious on the outlook for the rest of 2018.

"Recently, crude oil futures have lost some momentum amid uncertainty as traders prepare for potentially more supply returning to the market," OPEC said.

(Editing by Jason Neely)