Crude oil futures were down for a second straight session on Tuesday as traders worried about domestic production growth and its impact on the current OPEC production curb, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March West Texas Intermediate crude fell 54 cents, or 1%, to settle at $52.63 a barrel, marking its lowest finish for a front-month contract since January 20.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, March Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 29 cents, or 0.5%, to end trading at $55.23 a barrel. The March contract expires at Tuesday’s settlement.
“Concerns over rising American production continue to mount, with official rig counts for last week indicating that a further 15 oil rigs had been added in the U.S.,” said Enrico Chiorando, a U.K.-based analyst at energy consultancy Love Energy. “This mounting production continued to threaten to undermine the efforts of OPEC to reduce global supply.”
Meanwhile, March natural gas ended at $3.232 per million British thermal units, down 12.6 cents, or 3.8%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.