Crude prices still lower on supply glut concerns

LONDON, August 24, 2017 – Crude oil prices remained lower on Thursday, as news on Wednesday of increasing U.S. production levels added to concerns over a global supply glut.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude September contract was at $47.98 a barrel by 09:15 a.m. ET (13:15 GMT), down around 44 cents or 0.83%.

Brent oil for October delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London lost 22 cents, or 0.42%, to $52.35 a barrel.

Oil prices weakened after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that domestic crude production edged up by 26,000 barrels a day to 9.528 million last week, the highest level since July 2015.

However, crude oil inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels, the eighth weekly decline in a row.

Gasoline stockpiles were down 1.2 million barrels for the week, according to the EIA.

Oil prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as concern over rising U.S. shale output canceled out production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members.

OPEC and 10 producers outside the cartel, including Russia, agreed since the start of the year to slash 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018 in order to reduce a global supply glut and rebalance the market.

So far, the deal has had little impact on global inventory levels due to rising supply from producers not participating in the accord, such as Libya and Nigeria, as well as a relentless increase in U.S. shale output.

Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for September were up 0.2 cents, or roughly 1.42%, to $1.646 a gallon, while September heating oil gained 0.57%, to $1.634 a gallon.

Natural gas futures for September delivery climbed 0.58%, to $2.945 per million British thermal units.

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