Yahoo Finance Crude Oil Prices Settle Lower to Snap 4-Week Winning Streak
Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled sharply lower on Friday as signs of tightening global supplies were offset by rising US production.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery fell 58 cents to settle at $63.37 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent lost 1.04% to trade at $68.59 a barrel.
Crude oil prices snapped a four-week winning streak as investors weighed the impact of rising US production on OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies. The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its monthly report, warned that rising non-OPEC production would offset a raft of positive factors supporting oil prices including ongoing OPEC output cuts.
“Given Venezuela’s astonishing debt and deteriorating oil network, it is possible that declines this year will be even steeper,” the IEA said. “Explosive growth in the U.S. and substantial gains in Canada and Brazil will far outweigh potentially steep declines in Venezuela and Mexico.”
Fears over rising US production comes as data this week showed the number of US rigs drilling for oil fell, while US production rose sharply, which offset a decline in US crude oil supplies for the ninth-straight week.
The number of oil rigs operating in the U.S. rose by 5 to 747, according to data from energy services firm Baker Hughes. U.S. crude production rose by 258,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.75 million barrels per day last week, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported Thursday, while inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 6.86 million barrels, beating expectations for of a draw of 3.54 million barrels.
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