Oil prices slumped on Monday, June 17 pressured by an expansion in U.S. drilling that has helped maintain high global supplies despite an OPEC-led initiative to tighten the market by cutting production.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 16 cents at $47.21 per barrel at 0841 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 19 cents at $44.55 per barrel.
Prices for both benchmarks are down around 14 percent since late May, when producers led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries extended a pledge to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) for an extra nine months.
Signs of faltering demand have also prompted weakening sentiment, dropping prices to levels comparable to when the output cuts were first announced late last year.
Analysts said a steady rise in U.S. production, along with output increases in cut-exempt Libya and Nigeria, were undermining the OPEC-led effort.
“Anyone who is looking for the bottom of the current price fall must keep his or her eyes on the supply-side equation and only get optimistic if the factors that have been driving oil prices lower since the end of May change,” PVM analyst Tamas Varga said.
Data on Friday showed a record 22nd consecutive week of increases in the number of U.S. oil rigs, bringing the count to 747, the most since April 2015.
Supplies from OPEC also jumped in May, driven by recovering output from Libya and Nigeria, which were exempt from cuts due to unrest that had hindered their output.
