Oil Prices Sink Ahead Of Industry Reports

Major oil benchmarks dipped on Monday ahead of two major oil industry reports that are set to be released on Tuesday of this week.

The IEA is set to publish it’s World Outlook 2020 on Tuesday, followed by OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR). Both are much-anticipated industry reports that are set not only to shed light on oil production around the world, but on the very thing that has plagued prices since the start of the pandemic—oil demand.

And no one is expecting promising results on the oil demand front from either source.

Oil prices were already trading down on Monday as oil and gas companies operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were preparing to restart after the shut down created by the latest hurricane running through the area, Hurricane Delta. Prices were further pressured by reports of Libya’s restart of its largest oilfield—the Sharara—after months of blockades that had shuttered the field. The final blow to oil prices on Monday came from Norway, with negotiations successfully ending a strike action that had crippled oil and gas production to the tune of hundreds of barrels of oil equivalent per day.

For OPEC’s MOMR, the world will get an inside look on Tuesday at oil production in all the OPEC member countries. What most analysts suspect is that oil production in OPEC countries fell in September, but was still over what OPEC had promised it would cut when factoring in the extra make-up cuts that non-compliant members were tasked with implementing.  But it will also provide a forecast for oil demand.

For the IEA, the World Energy Outlook 2020 is expected to provide insight into the energy landscape over the next decade, with a particular focus on the effects that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the oil industry—and the energy industry as a whole.

By 4:53 p.m. EDT, WTI had fallen below $40 per barrel to $39.57 (-2.54%), with Brent crude falling 2.45% to $41.80.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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