WTI, Brent and Natural Gas Tumble on Monday

01155_crudeoildown040416

Crude oil futures settled lower on Monday as weary traders took losses across the energy sector, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March West Texas Intermediate crude fell 82 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $53.01 a barrel.

On London’s ICE Futures Exchange, April Brent crude declined by $1.09, or 1.9%, to end trading at $55.72 a barrel.

Analysts said tension between the U.S. and Iran is also helping to limit losses for oil prices.

The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile test launch, raising tensions with one of the world’s top 10 oil producers.

Iran, which produces around 3.7 million barrels a day, was welcomed back to the global oil markets in January last year after the U.S. lifted the sanctions against its oil exports. Even though the country is a participant in a production cut deal spearheaded by OPEC, Iran is aggressively seeking fresh investment to help jumpstart its antiquated oil industry. A reinstatement of sanctions would derail its plan.

Meanwhile, March natural gas ended at $3.05 per million British thermal units, down 1.3 cents, or 0.4%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly data on petroleum supplies due Wednesday is forecasted to show a climb of one million barrels for crude oil supplies.