U.S. shale oil companies are hedging against future price drops as West Texas Intermediate enjoys a rebound above $50 a barrel, Reuters has reported , citing unnamed sources in the know. Crude oil prices had been recovering slowly during the final quarter of last year, and they jumped sharply earlier this month as vaccine rollout advanced, albeit slowly, in the United States and Europe. At the same time, Saudi Arabia served a pleasant surprise to oil markets by declaring it would cut an additional 1 million bpd from its production on top of cuts agreed with OPEC+. As a result, WTI hit the highest since February last year, trading at over $52 a barrel at the time of writing. Brent crude rebounded to above $55 a barrel. According to the Reuters report, short positions on oil contracts in the futures and options market opened by producers have been rising […]