Oil prices continue slide; WTI nearing six-month low as supply glut weighs

FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks are silhouetted against the rising sun on an oilfield in Baku, Azerbaijan, January 24, 2013. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili/File Photo

Oil prices fell by as much as a further 3 percent on Friday, after prices had crashed to five-month lows in the previous session, as concerns about global oversupply wiped out all of the price gains since OPEC’s move to cut output.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $44.14 per barrel at 0335 GMT, down $1.39 or 3 percent, after a more than 4 percent drop the previous session. WTI futures have fallen below prices when the OPEC cuts were agreed in late November and are at their lowest since Nov. 14.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $47.05 per barrel at 0335 GMT, down $1.33 or 2.8 percent from their last close. Brent tumbled back below $50 in the previous session and is its lowest since Jan. 14.

Brent and WTI are on track for their largest two-day percentage loss since February 2016.

“So far OPEC’s strategy to draw down inventories has not worked … It seems obvious to us that OPEC will need to keep the cuts in place for longer than the next 6 months if their strategy is to have any chance of success,” Neil Beveridge, senior oil and gas analyst at AB Bernstein in Hong Kong said in a note to clients on Friday.

read more- reuters

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