Oil down on continued glut

MIDF Research said this was because shale oil producers incurred lower production costs following the use of advanced technology.

Crude oil futures fell on Friday, bringing losses this month to more than 8 per cent, as disappointing Chinese data and worries over a supply glut overshadowed geopolitical concerns.

“Funds have been covering short positions ahead of US Thanksgiving, we’ll see more of this in the run-up to Christmas”, Meyer said.

In October, a major Polish refinery began importing crude oil from Saudi Arabia, puncturing Russia’s monopoly. Spot gold rose as much as 1.1 percent to $1,080.51 and was last up 0.5 percent at $1,074.61 an ounce. “Crude and product inventories are building in the US with the market expected to remain oversupplied through the first half of 2016”.

Referring to the growing geopolitical risk in oil-producing Middle East, Daniel Ang who is an investment analyst at Phillip Futures Pte Ltd said, “In Asian hours you are seeing some profit-taking or some consolidation…”

These statements prompted widespread speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may be persuaded to slash its oil output, whose ceiling is now at 30 million barrels per day but has indicated may rise next month.

Brent North Sea crude for January, the global benchmark for oil, was down 58 cents at US$44.88 a barrel in late trade in London.

Reports that Russian Federation is not taking military action against Turkey for the shooting down of one of its fighter jets on the Syrian border also eased fears that the tense situation in the region could escalate and disrupt oil supplies.

The 12-nation OPEC, which counts the world´s biggest oil producer Saudi Arabia among its members as well as Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran, holds a regular meeting in Vienna on December 4.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey did not want any escalation of tension over the downing of the Russian warplane, and that it had acted simply to defend its own security and the “rights of our brothers” in Syria.

Gasoline futures settled down 0.23 cent, or 0.2%, at $1.3938 a gallon.

Both crude contracts were on track for small weekly gains, but were down by roughly 9 percent since the beginning of November. Subsequently, WTI CLF6 futures fell strongly and are now trading around the $42.50/b level.

Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.