Oil prices recorded their first weekly loss in five weeks after settling for the second straight session on Friday, as traders retreated due to a sharp recovery in US production
The US crude oil futures contract for western Texas to deliver Mars dropped 58 cents, or about 0.9 percent, to finish at 63.31 dollars a barrel, its lowest level since Jan. 9. The US index reached its highest level three years ago at 64.89 dollars on Tuesday.
At the same time, futures for Brent Futures, the main oil price index, fell out of the state, by 70 cents, almost 1%, to settle at $68.61 a barrel when trading is closed. The contract reached 70.37 dollars on Monday, its best level since December 2014.
During the week, West Texas ore broker dropped by about 1.5%, the biggest such loss since early December, while Brent dropped by 1.8%, which is the largest weekly decline since early October, when investors were affected by the impact of US production rising on OPEC's efforts to rid the market of supplies Excess.
In its monthly report on Friday, the International Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that an increase in rapid production in the United States would deviate a wide range of positive factors that support oil prices, including the reduction of OPEC's current production.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects US production levels to surpass 10 million barrels per day (bpd), surpassing the OPEC giant, Saudi Arabia, and Russia's rivalry. Crude oil production in the United States reached 9.75 million barrels per day on Jan. 12, according to data from the Energy Information Department.
Oil prices have added about 10 percent since early December, benefiting from the production reduction efforts led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend the current oil production cuts until the end of 2018.
The oil production cut-off agreement was 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to expire in March 2018, once it had been extended once.
Analysts and traders, however, cautioned that the recent rise may encourage the US rock oil producers to increase production while looking to benefit from price rises.
Among other energy contracts, the gas futures contracts in February declined by 1.9 cents, or 1.1%, to expire at $862 per gallon on Friday. Weekly gains of about 0.8% are still being achieved.
The February heating oil dropped by 0.3 cents, or 0.2%, to $2.058 per gallon, registering a weekly loss of about 1.3%.
At the same time, natural gas futures contracts dropped 0.1% to $3.185 per million British thermal units. I lost about 0.5% for the week.
Next week, market participants will share new weekly information on United States stocks of products ore and refined on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to further measure the impact of the recent stormy activity on supply and demand.
Tuesday
The US Petroleum Institute, an industrial group, publishes its weekly report on US oil supply.
Wednesday
The American Energy Information Department publishes weekly data on oil and gasoline inventories.
Thursday
The US government is also publishing a weekly report on the supply of natural gas in warehouses.
On Friday
Baker Hughes produces weekly data on the number of oil platforms in the United States.
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