Oil Stock Market News - Crude Oil Prices Weak

Oil prices weak as demand seen sagging toward year-end

Crude oil prices remained weak on Monday as a slowing demand outlook implied oversupply will remain in place for months, prompting speculators to cut their bets on rising prices.

Front-month U.S. crude futures were trading at $44.62 per barrel at 2.59 a.m. ET, a mere 2 cents above their last close but more than 12 percent below their October peak.

International benchmark Brent was down 1 cent at $47.98 a barrel, and over 11 percent below this month's high.

Goldman Sachs said that oil prices could drop "sharply lower" as refined product storage sites come close to filling, stoking a glut that has already seen crude prices fall by more than half since June 2014.

ANZ said it expected prices to remain low for the rest of this year, due to slowing demand and as speculators were cutting bets on higher prices.

On the demand side, Energy Aspects said that it "forecast a sharp slowdown in global oil demand across Q4 15 at 0.8 million barrels per day, which marks the slowest pace of growth in five quarters."

Energy Aspects said ongoing oversupply in crude oil was starting to spill into the market for refined products, with a product stock-build of 0.6 million barrels per day seen in the third quarter.

Rising inventories as well as a mild winter expected for Europe and North America as a result of an El Nino weather event would likely lead to reduced refinery production and lower use of crude oil by refiners, it said.

Due to the low oil prices, investment in the sector in 2016 will likely decline further after sliding this year by more than a fifth, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Monday.