Oil prices fell on Monday morning due to the increase in supply and weak demand in global markets.
Brent crude futures were down 58 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $81.59 a barrel by 0151 GMT, bringing US West Texas Intermediate crude down 58 cents, or 0.7%, to $80.21 a barrel.
Recently, oil prices were affected by the rise in the US dollar, and the expectations of the US President releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce prices.
ANZ analysts said in a report that “the White House is discussing how to address rising inflation, with some officials calling for the use of the strategic reserve or stopping US exports.”
US energy companies this week increased the number of oil and natural gas rigs for the third week in a row, while crude oil prices hovered near their highest level in seven years, prompting some exploration companies to return to drilling.
Baker Hughes Energy Services said on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs, an early indicator of future production, increased to 556 in the week to November 15, the highest level since April 2020.
At the same time, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week lowered its forecast for global oil demand for the fourth quarter by 330,000 barrels per day compared to expectations last month after high energy prices hampered the economic recovery from the Corona pandemic.
In a related context, an oil report said that the OPEC+ alliance aims to continue pumping fixed quantities into the markets, “without setting a specific price for the coming period.”
The World Oil Corporation said that there is concern that some countries of the OPEC+ alliance will not be able to achieve the monthly increases they pledged, as countries such as Angola and Nigeria are struggling to achieve the goals.
The report pointed out that consuming countries, including the United States and India, demanded that OPEC+ producers pump more to calm prices that jumped this year.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar said that OPEC aims to add 400,000 barrels per day that it targeted each month and will review the pace of production increases in the first quarter of 2022.
“OPEC policy is not about lowering or raising prices,” Jabbar told reporters. “Rather it’s about achieving stability in energy supplies. OPEC’s objective is to prevent prices from collapsing. There is no target to reach a certain price.”
