Despite a reduction in crude supplies, prices continued to fall. February West Texas Intermediate crude lost two dollars to end trade at $33.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile on the London ICE Futures Exchange, February Brent crude contracts slipped by $2.19 to settle at $34.23 a barrel.
Even though the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that stockpiles dropped by 5.1 million barrels last week, traders are still fearing the oversupply. So far, prices have resisted the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the EIA figures as crude supplies remain near record levels and the world’s second largest economy, China, is expected to consume less energy as its economy slows.
February natural gas contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 5.8 cents to settle at $2.267 per million British thermal units.
