US crude prices reverse course, on track for the eleventh day of losses

The price of US crude has turned negative, reversing the trend as US President Donald Trump said he hopes there will be no reduction in oil production, after Saudi Arabia declared OPEC planned to reduce supply next year, pointing to a slowdown in demand.

The benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell 17 cents a barrel to trade at $ 60.02 a barrel at 1:24 pm. IS. If the contract ends, it would be the eleventh consecutive daily decline.

After four sessions of losses, Brent crude futures rose 14 cents to 70.32 dollars a barrel, reducing its gains after reaching 71.88 dollars.

"Let's hope that Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not reduce oil production," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Oil prices should be much lower depending on the supply!"

Oil prices had firmed up earlier in the session, after Saudi Arabia reported that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners felt that demand would be sufficiently low to justify an increase in oil prices. reduction in production of one million barrels a day next year.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that OPEC and its allies agreed that the technical badysis shows the need to reduce the number of people in the country. next year oil supply of about 1 million bpd compared to October levels.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, announced Sunday that it would cut shipments of half a million bpd in December due to lower seasonal demand.

"We are kind of back to square one: it makes them think a lot about November 2016," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York, referring to the period in OPEC and its allies have agreed to initiate production cuts. "Saudis and Russians, in particular, have rushed production to the market to compensate for losses that do not materialize."

The market had forecast that exports from Iran, an OPEC member, would fall precipitously following the imposition of US sanctions in November. However, the United States has granted exemptions to some major importers of Iranian crude, reducing the expected reductions.

OPEC and the International Energy Agency are releasing their respective monthly reports on the outlook for oil supply and demand in the course of the week. ]

Oil prices fell by around 20% last month, due to the increase in global supply and the risk of slowing demand, especially from customers whose currencies have weakened against the dollar and have eroded their purchasing power.

Production of the world's major oil producers, Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia, has increased by 1.05 million bpd in the last three months, according to official production figures .

This left OPEC struggling to adjust its own production which, with about 33.3 million bpd, accounts for about a third of the global supply.

A senior Kuwaiti group member, Kuwait, said Monday that major oil exporters had "discussed over the weekend a proposal to reduce supply (in gross ) next year ", without however providing details on this subject.

The increase in US production is one of the main problems of OPEC.

"One thing is quite clear, OPEC is about to shake the shale as crude oil production in the United States reaches a record 11.6 million barrels a day and will cross the threshold of 12 million next year, "said Stephen Innes, trade manager for the Asia-Pacific region. Oanda futures brokerage in Singapore.