Oil
futures settled lower on Tuesday for a third straight session, giving
up earlier gains to remain stuck at levels not seen in nearly seven
years.
January
West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $37.51 a barrel, down 14
cents, or 0.4%, after trading as high as $38.58 and low as $36.64.
January Brent crude lost 47 cents, or 1.2%, to $40.26 a barrel.
Both grades logged their lowest settlement prices since February 2009.
Oil
prices have fallen sharply since Friday, when the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to keep output high, despite a
drop of roughly 60% for both WTI and Brent crudes since the summer of
2014.
Providing
some support for dollar-based oil prices was a weaker dollar. In
addition, U.S. monthly government data released Monday showed
expectations for a decline in total January domestic shale-oil
production.
The
Energy Information Administration on Tuesday lifted its 2015 crude
production estimate to 9.33 million barrels a day from a prior estimate
of 9.29 million. It also cut its WTI price forecasts for this year and
next.
Weekly
petroleum supply data from the EIA will be released on Wednesday and
offer an update on total domestic oil production. The American Petroleum
Institute will issue its weekly oil-inventory update late Tuesday.
Analysts
polled by Platts forecast a weekly decline of 1.2 million barrels in
crude inventories. But they also expect increases of 3.2 million barrels
for gasoline stockpiles and a rise of 2.5 million barrels for
distillate supplies, with refinery utilization seen topping 95% of
capacity.
Source: MarketWatch
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