Brent crude oil dropped to its lowest in more than four years on Nov. 4, a day after Saudi Arabia announced changes to its official selling prices.
U.S. light crude contracts fell to as little as $75.84 per barrel, the least since October 2011, before recovering to $76.78 a barrel later in the session, according to Reuters. Front-month Brent dropped to $82.08 per barrel, the lowest since October 2010, and later pared these losses to reach $82.43 a barrel by 15:00 GMT.
Bespoke Investment Group commented on the recent decline in a research note sent to clients, USA Today reported.
“The oil move … is mostly driven by a Saudi announcement yesterday that their production would be discounted for American customers, sending WTI … plummeting into the close of trading yesterday and through the night,” wrote the investment company, according to the news source.
The commodity fell into a bear market in October against a backdrop of falling global demand and expanding supplies, and speculation the largest producers in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries were attempting to keep their existing market share by discounting their crude prices instead of reducing output, Bloomberg reported.
Free Reports:
After oil depreciated significantly last month, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. subsequently lowered the cost the U.S. must pay for oil, according to the news source. Tariq Zahir, a New York-based commodity fund manager at Tyche Capital Advisors, weighed in on Saudi Arabia’s decision to reduce U.S. rates.
“It shows that Saudi Arabia really wants to keep their market share,” Zahir told the media outlet. “There is no indication that they are going to do a supply cut,” he asserted.
While Zahir seems confident OPEC will not reduce its output, Ian Taylor, chief executive of energy and commodities company Vitol, provided a differing view at the Reuters Global Commodities Summit. He predicted the organization would talk about lowering production at the upcoming meeting on Nov. 27.
“My feeling is we’re underestimating now the possibility of OPEC cutting,” Zahir told the news source.
Pierre Lorinet, chief financial officer of Trafigura, stated at the conference that keeping prices low could potentially benefit producers that have substantial low-cost reserves, according to the media outlet.
Saudi Arabia – and OPEC – are making these moves as they compete with producers in Latin America, Russia, North Africa and the U.S., a country where production has surged 54 percent in the last three years, Bloomberg reported.
A separate development that could impact the global oil markets is the move made by more than a dozen U.S. oil producers to form a new lobby group called Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, which aims to lift the nation’s 40-year ban on crude exports, according to Reuters.
Market participants involved in brent crude oil trading might be interested in knowing about the recent sharp drop in the raw material’s contracts, as well as the developments that surrounded this decline.
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