At 1048 GMT, the front month ICE December Brent crude futures were down $1.82 from Wednesday’s settle at $81.27/b, while the NYMEX November light sweet crude contract fell by $1.38 at $71.79/b.
Brent lost $1.91 on Wednesday while WTI slid $1.79.
A key driver was the spike in crude inventory reported by the American Petroleum Institute. The API reported a build of 9.75 million barrels of US crude oil inventories for the week ending October 5. An S&P Global Platts survey of analysts on Monday had indicated a 1.61 million barrel build.
In addition, the EIA’s short term energy outlook Wednesday highlighted higher US crude production and slower economic growth. “Some developed and emerging market economies may be starting to experience slower economic growth, which could result in lower-than-forecast oil demand, especially if crude oil prices continue to rise,” the report said.
“EIA forecasts that US crude oil production will average 11.8 million b/d in 2019, which is almost 0.3 million b/d higher than the forecast in the September report,” it added. At the Oil and Money industry event Thursday, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said that “OPEC remains ready to keep oil markets fully supplied,” adding that the recent runup in oil prices was due to the “perception” of a supply shortage rather than fundamentals. Platts
