Growing concerns that the U.S. will be facing a glut of oil again is blamed for oil prices falling closer to the $60-a-barrel mark.
West Texas Intermediate crude on Friday dropped 7 cents to $62.11 a barrel on April 2018 futures. Brent Crude in London was down 6-cents and settled at $65.55 a barrel for May 2018 crude.
Gas prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange remained steady at $2.70 per MMcf.
But the concern over too much oil production in the U.S. resulted in an increase in shorty sells. Bloomberg News reported that hedge funds boosted bets on falling WTI crude prices by the most this year.
It wasn’t but earlier this year when crude prices in the U.S. were more than $66 a barrel. However, American production has reached 10.37 million barrels, the most in weekly data going back to 1983. Plus, the amount of crude in storage has risen over the past five of the last six weeks.
