The drop in oil prices seems set to continue until the last days of 2015.
Even after an unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil stocks last week, a report from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, which exhibited a surprise buildup in oil production and supply, has triggered yet another slide in oil prices, according to Fortune.
U.S. crude futures extended losses immediately after the data was released, falling to an intraday low of $36.40 per barrel.
December 2015 has seen oil prices slide to levels that have not been seen in years. The resilient stance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) about keeping current levels of production also seem to aggravate the trend, reported News OXY.
Apart from the OPEC's insistence on producing the same volume of oil despite a slower market demand, the oil production of countries such as Russia and the U.S. has also led to a global surplus of between 500,000 and about 2 million barrels a day.
The trends in the oil industry, as well the continuous slide in oil prices during the last days of 2015, has led analysts and traders to look at the coming year as a year of lower prices.
"The 2016 outlook is for lower prices, especially early next year. Many are closing their last long positions for the year today as nobody wants to come back in January and be surprised badly. Better start with a clean sheet," a trader said, according to The Guardian.
In the last hours of trading, U.S. oil futures ended down $2.36, or 4.2 percent, at $54.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contracts ended at the lowest price since May 2009.
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