Snowstorm can't save oil from falling to $20s: Analyst

Despite some near-term bullish signals, oil markets remain fundamentally oversupplied and may not be able to hold above $30 per barrel, ClearView Energy Partners analyst Kevin Book said Monday.

Crude oil futures rocketed 10 percent higher on Friday as traders covered bets that oil would fall farther and as heating oil prices rose ahead of a massive snowstorm on the U.S. East Coast.

That plucked oil prices out of the $20-to-$30-per-barrel range, where they had fallen one week earlier. But on Monday, crude oil prices were down about 3 percent as Iraq announced record high oil production.

"The fundamentals haven't changed because of a snowstorm," Book told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"It's unclear where the right number is, but if 20s is where it should have been or where it was converging, 20s is probably back where it's going."

The world remains oversupplied by roughly 1 million to 2 million barrels per day of oil. That glut will persist through the first half of the year, and will likely only begin to balance in the last quarter of 2016, Book said.

North American oil can possibly rebound to $50 to $55 per barrel sometime next year, with prices accelerating in 2018 in Book's estimation.

But oil markets still face near-term headwinds.

On the demand side, the International Energy Agency's forecast for global crude oil consumption growth of 1.2 million bpd looks optimistic, Book said.

"In the long run, what you do with low prices is you encourage demand, but in short run, it's very inelastic. It takes a long time to build roads, to sell cars, to invest in new industrial capacity," he said.

On the supply side, every 100,000 bpd that Iran brings online will push back a rebalance in prices.

Iranian leaders aim to bring an additional 500,000 bpd to market as soon as possible, following the lifting of sanctions related to the country's nuclear program earlier this month. But Clearview expects Iran can only ramp up exports to 300,000 bpd in the coming quarter.