Crude oil futures ended lower on Monday, shortly before a government report was issued revealing less-than-anticipated declines in U.S. shale oil output, according to a news report by Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August West Texas Intermediate crude slid 71 cents, or 1.6%, to end trading at $45.24 a barrel.
September Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 65 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $46.96 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
An expected decrease of 99,000 barrels a day in U.S. shale oil production for August was revealed in the monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration report which was issued on Monday before oil futures settled. In July, the EIA forecasted a reduction of 118,000 barrels a day.
“There is a pretty clear bearish trend of slowing output declines in the weekly data and strong possibility that U.S. production is finding a floor around 8 [million barrels a day] in the lower 48,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August natural gas dropped 3.4 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $2.722 per million British thermal units.