World Oil Glut Continues To Drag Down Prices

Oil prices continue to move downwards despite U.S. and Middle East promises to cut production and diminish the glut.

Brent remained steady and U.S. crude was slightly lower after initially rallying on Monday as Saudi Arabia pledged to work toward oil price stability but traders continued to be concerned about a global supply surplus and increasing U.S. stockpiles.

Analysts are skeptical about the Saudi promise as similar pledges over the years have not been honored and the Saudis along with the other big OPEC producers have managed to keep output high to maintain market share, cutting crude prices by half over the past year. Oil prices are now barely above their 2.5 month low.

OPEC’s next meeting on production targets is on Dec. 4 and any announcement made at the session will have considerable ramifications on oil markets throughout the world.

Still Too Much US Crude

Analysts have noted that according to their data crude inventories across the United States rose by 1.1 million barrels last week as market intelligence firm Genscape reported a build of 2.2 million barrels of U.S. crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point.

According to Phil Flynn, analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago, “The overarching concern in this market is the growing inventory levels for crude, and that doesn’t seem to be easing despite the strong refinery runs we’ve been having. ”

Brent futures settled up 17 cents at $44.83 a barrel while U.S. crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures finished the session down 15 cents at $41.75.