Global Oil Prices Fall on Thursday

• Global Oil Prices Fall on Thursday

Oil prices fell on Thursday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the U.S crude stockpiles rose 2.2 million barrels last week to 485.5 million barrels.

Analysts had predicted 481,000 barrels decrease before the data showed U.S. commercial stocks were 8 percent above five-year average and at almost a 2-year high.

Brent crude oil, against which Nigerian crude is measured, dipped by 0.1 percent on Thursday morning to $59.9 a barrel after previously falling 3.7 percent on Wednesday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude declined by 0.2 percent on Thursday morning to settled at $51.06 a barrel. It plunged by 4 percent on Wednesday.

“It was a brutal move, sheer panic,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at Vanguard Markets.

The EIA has lowered its projection for oil demand in 2019, citing trade war and global slowdown.

While Goldman Sachs said uncertain global economic outlook and volatile oil production from Iran and others could force OPEC+ to extend its production cuts.

“Fundamental uncertainty on the current and forward states of the global oil market is high,” Goldman said.

“We believe that this will lead the group to roll forward its current agreement, with likely no change to country level quotas given the difficulty in determining required production levels in coming months,” the bank’s analysts said.