Oil Prices Drop To One-Year Low As Supplies Remain High

Radiofarda – Oil fell another 3 percent on Thursday taking prices to a one-year low, as prospect of economic slowdown in the world and abundance of supplies put pressure on the crude oil market.

Brent crude futures fell $1.53 to $55.71 a barrel, a 2.7 percent loss, by 10:55 a.m. EST (1555 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.55 to $46.62 a barrel, a 3.2 percent loss.

Such low prices will put further pressure on Iran, which has seen its oil exports halve since President Donald Trump’s administration announced its decision to reimpose sanctions in May, making buyers jittery to import Iranian oil.

It will also put pressure on Russia, which relies heavily on oil exports to finance its budget.

U.S. stock markets continued their steep decline on Thursday, putting more pressure on oil prices lower.

“It’s still falloff after the Fed yesterday,” Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago told Reuters. “There’s some doubts in the market about the outlook for the economy, which is weighing on the demand side of the equation.”

OPEC has agreed recently to cut production by more than one million barrels per day, but production is at its peak in three major oil producing countries, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia.

With reporting by Reuters, AP