Oil Prices Continue to Slide on Oversupply Worries

Investing.com – Oil prices continued to fall on Thursday as data revealed crude inventories have been rising more than expected.

declined 0.4%, at $56.1 a barrel by 12:49 AM ET (05:49 GMT). 
 
Meanwhile, , the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., was down 0.2%, to $65.97. 

The American Petroleum Institute reported on Wednesday that crude inventories rose by 8.8 million barrels in the week to Nov. 9 to 440.7 million, compared with earlier expectation for an increase of 3.2 million barrels.

Meanwhile, the Washington-based Energy Information Administration (EIA) said nearly 38 million barrels had been added to crude inventories in the U.S. in the past seven weeks.

U.S. crude output from seven major shale basins is expected to hit a record 7.94 million bpd in December, the EIA said on Tuesday.

Total U.S. crude production, meanwhile, stands at a record 11.6 million bpd, making the country the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Most analysts expect that output to climb above 12 million bpd in the first half of 2019.

Although not a directional driver, OPEC President Suhail al-Mazrouei and OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said the group has a consensus to support the decision to balance the market.

Barkindo told CNBC in an interview that the OPEC is determined to “restore stability” in energy markets. However, Mazrouei added that the group would not overreact to the latest volatility in oil prices.

Reports on Wednesday said the group and its partners were discussing a 1.4 million-barrels-per-day cut in output vs the total 1.0 million-bpd reduction the group had proposed at a weekend meeting in Abu Dhabi with allies that included Russia.

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