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World Oil Prices Drop Thanks to US Data

As the market deemed US energy stockpiles to be sufficient, world oil prices dropped to US 58.30 dollars, which represented a decline of 73 cents per barrel. US crude was down 63 cents at US 58.10 dollars a barrel by 16:32 GMT. Business and oil traders also tracked events in the North Sea off Norway, the world?s third biggest exporter of crude oil, with the drop in price owing to stormy weather which lead to problems on platforms.

?On the surface, the stocks data look very good (for higher prices) but when you dig into the details, you see that the draws in products happened on the west coast, miles away from the main market in the east. People were looking for the northeastern market to show a drawdown which wasn?t the case, so prices are going into decline again,? said Bruce Evers, Investec analyst. Business and oil traders and companies will definitely be following this new development regarding oil pricing.

Petrol stocks fell 2.8 million barrels to 204.6 million, going against expectations of a decline of just 925,000 barrels. Additionally, levels of distillate products, such as diesel fuel and heating oil, were down 2.7 million barrels to 141.3 million over the week. That compared with a smaller forecast fall of 1.2 million barrels. Market participants throughout the world were keeping an eye on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil cartel, which was to begin applying an announced output cut of 1.2 million barrels per day.