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Bloomberg
Oil slid further into a bear market as rising global supply is countering efforts by OPEC and its allies to drain a glut. Futures fell as much as 1.1 percent in New York after front-month prices closed on Tuesday more than 20 percent below their February peak. Libya, exempt from the OPEC-led output cuts, is pumping the most in four years while oil stored on tankers reached a 2017 high this month. US crude inventories dropped by 2.72 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report.
Oil has returned to levels before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia decided in November to cut production to drain a global glut.
Relentless supply gains in the US and renewed output from Libya are putting those efforts to boost prices in jeopardy. American drillers have added rigs to fields for 22 weeks, the longest run in 30 years, according to Baker Hughes Inc. “There is no bullish catalyst for oil to be seen at the moment and thus it is drifting lower,†said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB AB in Oslo.
West Texas Intermediate for August delivery was at $43.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 34 cents, at 8:40 a.m. in London. Total volume traded was about 3 percent above the 100-day average. The July contract expired Tuesday after dropping 97 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $43.23, the lowest close since Sept. 16.