Oil prices plunged on Monday following the news on the increased amount of oil rigs in the United States.
By the end of Friday’s session, Brent and WTI futures dropped to $48.61 and $43.87 per barrel accordingly. Brent contracts for September delivery fell to $48.35 per barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Meanwhile, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, September futures on West Texas Intermediate went down to $43.63 per barrel.
The increase in the number of oil rigs in the United States has been recorded for three consecutive weeks. Last week, the rig count rose by 6 coming to 670. However, it is still 60 percent lower than in December 2014.
Considering the current oversupply and weak demand, experts downgrade their forecasts on WTI and Brent prices for the second half of 2015 to $44 and $50 per barrel accordingly.
Meanwhile, China is hitting record import levels. According to the preliminary data published by China’s General Administration of Customs, July imports increased by 30.71 million tons which is equal to 7.3 million barrels per day.
