Global oil prices continue to decline

Business Sunday 25/November/2018 18:41 PM
By: Times News Service
Global oil prices continue to decline

Muscat: Oil prices around the world have fallen, as markets continue to deal with an oversupply of crude.
After reaching a high of US$86 a barrel in early October, the price of Brent crude futures plunged to $58.80 on Nasdaq last Friday and continued to fall.
Commenting on the oil price drop, US President Donald Trump said, "Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big tax cut for America and the world. Enjoy! $54 was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!"
The Trump administration has long been an advocate for low oil prices. In early November, Trump called for the prices to drop.
"Hopefully, Saudi Arabia and Opec will not be cutting oil production. Oil prices should be much lower based on supply," he said.
The administration's approach, it seems, is working.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended Friday's session down $4.21 or 7.7 per cent at $50.42. WTI hit its weakest price since mid-October 2017 on Friday.
International benchmark Brent crude dropped $3.66 or 5.9 per cent to $58.94 by 1.34pm EST. The contract hit its lowest level since late October 2017.
Falls were also recorded in the price of Omani crude, which fell to $61.74 a barrel on Friday, according to the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.
The plunge in oil prices has also hit regional markets in the Middle East, with most indices ending the week on a negative note. For the week, Abu Dhabi was the worst performer amongst its peers with losses of -1.4 per cent, followed by Dubai and Saudi Arabia with a negative performance of -0.9 per cent and -0.7 per cent respectively.
The trend of falling prices is expected to continue.
In its latest Global Oil Report, the International Energy Agency anticipated that global supplies would continue to grow, stating, "Global oil supplies are growing rapidly, as record output from Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States more than offsets declines from Iran and Venezuela. The October output was up 2.6mb/d one year ago. Non-Opec output will grow by 2.4mb/d this year and 1.9mb/d in 2019."
Production within Opec has also increased, according to the agency. "Opec crude output rose 200kb/d in October to 32.99mb/d, up 240kb/d one year ago. Losses of 0.4mb/d from Iran and 0.6mb/d from Venezuela were offset by increases from others."