NEWS
Oil futures settled near $47 a barrel on Thursday, with West Texas Intermediate prices marking their lowest settlement since late January following a ninth straight weekly increase in U.S. supplies. Crude for delivery in April settled at $47.05 a barrel, down $1.12, or 2.3%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices haven’t settled this low since Jan. 29, based on the most-active contracts.
April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 46 cents, or 0.8%, to $57.08 a barrel after finding support earlier from ongoing violence by Islamic State militants in Iraq. The recent surge in the dollar is “undoubtedly adding pressure to energy futures and the entire commodity space, but the fundamental situation remains decidedly bearish for global oil prices as supply levels continue to surge week to week, and global demand outlooks are stagnant at best,” according to Thursday’s 7:00’s Report, which offers daily markets commentary.
Oil prices had diverged in the previous trading session, with Brent posting gains on the back of a technical correction, according to Citi Futures, with the expiration of the April Brent contract on Monday.
Data Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that crude-oil inventories rose by a more-than-expected 4.5 million barrels to 448.9 million barrels in the week ended March 6. That was the ninth week in row the EIA has reported a rise in crude supplies.
Can the U.S. shale-oil industry survive what appears to be a full-on price war? Saudi Arabia and OPEC refuse to let up on oil production, while proclaiming the need for non-OPEC producers to bear the burden of rebalancing supply and demand. Meanwhile, rig counts in the U.S. are falling, but oil production continues to rise and ever more oil continues to move into storage.