Crude oil prices remained at levels not seen since early 2009 on Friday as output in the Middle East continued to rise despite an already huge global glut, with analysts saying the price outlook for the rest of the year and into 2016 remained weak.
Brent crude futures were down 29 cents at $39.44 a barrel at 0551 GMT, a touch above a near-seven-year low hit earlier in the session at $39.38 a barrel.
U.S. crude futures were at $36.52 per barrel, down 24 cents and just above Thursday's bottom of $36.38 - the benchmark's lowest mark since February 2009.
"The next quarter is going to be particularly tough as we go from a high-demand to a low-demand quarter," said Richard Gorry, director of consultancy JBC Energy Asia.
Gorry said he expected a slow rebalancing of the market towards the end of next year, with production remaining stubbornly high despite low benchmark prices.
The price rout is a result of a huge overhang in production that is fast filling onshore storage sites, which some analysts expect to run out in early 2016.
ANZ bank said on Friday that "crude oil markets will remain subdued in 2016, though prospects for a recovery look better in the second half of the year."
Soaring output from OPEC member Iraq has been a large contributor to that overhang, with production there doubling over the past decade to around 4.3 million barrels per day, more than enough to meet all of India's daily demand.
OPEC as a whole pumped more oil in November than in any month since 2008 despite forecasting little demand growth for crude next year in a bid to defend market share.
No comments:
Post a Comment