On Monday, June 19, crude oil is getting cheaper worldwide. Experts say that the price drop has to do with the recent report on the amount of oil rigs in the United States. In particular, the report says that the amount of such rigs has grown over the last week.
Baker Hughes reported on June 16 that 6 new rigs had been activated over the reporting period, thereby setting a new major high – 767 units, which is the biggest amount of functioning oil rigs since April 2015. By the way, the amount of oil rigs has been continuously growing over the last 22 weeks, which is also the new 30-year record.
Another interesting fact to keep in mind is that the amount of oil rigs in the United States has doubled over the last 12 months, or has rather gone up by 2,2 times, to be more exact. This fact has a number of consequences. On the one hand, the pace at which new oil rigs emerge is going to slow down at some point in the near future. On the other hand, the recent OPEC’s decision to extend the Vienna Accord and related production cuts is made up for by the U.S. shale oil production, which has been growing for a while. This still makes the global market oversupplied, which in its turn keeps on pressing oil prices down to new local lows.
Earlier today, the London exchange (ICE) saw Brent oil futures for oil delivery drop by 0,32% down to $47,22/b. At the same time, WTI futures lost 0,38% and dropped down to $44,80/b, NordFX experts report.
At the same time, it’s interesting to note that the United States is not the only nation increasing its oil production. Libya’s major oil company National Oil Co. (NOC) expects the local oil production to grow from today’s 800K b/d all the way up to 900K b/d in the near future (most probably, within the next few weeks or even days).
