Oil Down as Oversupply Fears Continue to Loom

Oil was down on Monday morning in Asia, giving up some of its gains from the last session.

Brent Oil futures were down 1.36% to $30.48 by 9:52 PM ET (2:52 AM GMT) and WTI futures slid 2.02% to $24.24. WTI futures had gained almost 5 % during the last session.

Although some U.S. states loosened their lockdown measures and the demand shrunk by the COVID-19 virus is slowly increasing, reports of new outbreaks in South Korea and Wuhan soured investor sentiment.

Data from Johns Hopkins University said that there were over 4 million COVID-19 cases as of May 11.

Fears of a supply glut continue to persist despite producers cutting supply as supply tanks rapidly fill up towards capacity.

OPEC+ entered its second week of a 9.7-million bpd production cut agreed to last month with some investors looking for more evidence to support the organization’s adherence to its pledge.

Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNBC, “I expect now prices will pull back to $20 a barrel because skepticism will come into the market about the compliance of OPEC+ on the production cuts.”

“All it takes is one or two countries not to comply and it could open the door for others,” Lipow added. Countries such as Iraq have not yet informed its regular oil buyers of cuts to exports, a hint that the country is struggling to fully implement its pledged supply cuts.

Last updated on Mon., May 11, 2020.