Oil drops to $ 80 on rising US stocks

Inventories rose sharply as crude oil production in the United States fell by 300,000 barrels per day to 10.9 million barrels a day due to the temporary closure of offshore facilities to counter Hurricane Michael.

"The stocks are increasing," said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. "It's an ongoing trend, week after week it starts to accumulate."

To help support prices, traders said Thursday that a report from the Genscape Market Intelligence Company showed that stocks at Cushing had risen by less than a million barrels between Friday and Tuesday.

Oil prices had risen this week as a result of declining Iranian exports due to US sanctions and tension between the United States and Saudi Arabia after the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

US lawmakers have blamed Saudi leaders for the disappearance of the Saudi critic, suggesting that sanctions may be possible. Saudi Arabia denies having played a role in the disappearance of Khashoggi.

But President Donald Trump on Wednesday accorded Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt over the journalist's demise, suggesting that the White House could not take further action against Saudi Arabia.

Investors fear that Saudi Arabia is using oil reserves to take revenge on critics. But Saudi Arabia assured OPEC that it is "committed, able and willing" to ensure that the oil market is not in short supply, said Wednesday the secretary-general of l & # 39; OPEC.