Oil prices are falling as investors focus on inflation of global supply

Oil prices fell about 2% on Thursday as investors focused on global supply inflation, which was growing faster than expected.

The market is focused on US crude production, which has reached a record high, and evidence from Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, that production would increase in 2019 more quickly than expected. Fears of a possible bottleneck in supply have dampened the upward price trend in early trade, with Chinese data pointing to record crude imports.

Traders said the oil market had been affected by the increase in US stocks, the increase in OPEC production and the easing of sanctions against Iran .

Brent fell $ 1.42, or 1.97%, to $ 70.65 a barrel, its lowest level since mid-August.

The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark dropped $ 1.00 to settle at $ 60.67 a barrel, its lowest level since March 14th.

Customs data showed that China's crude oil imports reached 9.61 million barrels a day in October, up 32 percent from the previous year.

China is still allowed to import Iranian crude, with the exception of US sanctions, which will allow it to buy 360,000 barrels a day for 180 days, two Reuters sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

US crude production reached a new record of 11.6 million bpd, and the United States now exceeds Russia as the world's largest crude oil producer.

The US Energy Information Administration announced this week that it was forecasting production of more than 12 million barrels per day by mid-2019, thanks to the oil boom.

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