Oil prices dropped on Friday as a rising U.S. rig count stoked more concerns about global oversupply while an investigation by Chinese regulators into suspected stock market manipulation further unsettled the market.
Oil prices were steady on Thursday as an unexpected build in U.S. gasoline inventories offset a higher than forecast draw in crude stocks.
Oil field work was coming in fast when GoFrac doubled its workforce and equipment fleet at the beginning of last year, just one of hundreds of small oil service companies thriving on the revival of U.S. drilling.
A year on from the start of one of the biggest oil price crashes in history, the driving force behind the slide remains intact: there is still too much crude.
Oil prices fell on Monday as the Greek debt crisis helped boost the dollar, making fuel more expensive to holders of other currencies, and as United Nations talks offered a chance for peace in Yemen where crude exporter Saudi Arabia is involved in a civil war.
Russia will begin importing Iranian oil under a long-heralded oil-for-goods barter arrangement in the coming week, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying, more than a year after negotiations began.
Oil group OPEC agreed to stick by its policy of unconstrained output for another six months on Friday, setting aside warnings of a second lurch lower in prices as some members such as Iran look to ramp up exports.
European shares extended losses on Friday, on track for their worst week of the year as a losing streak for bonds rumbled on, with wary investors anticipating more Greek debt drama and a solid U.S. payrolls reading.
A persistent sell-off in bond markets left financial market confidence in short supply on Thursday, with stocks lower globally and not even traditional safe havens like gold and the Swiss franc providing much of a refuge.
Oil fell nearly 3 percent on Wednesday as traders and investors ignored a fifth straight weekly decline in U.S. crude stockpiles to focus instead on a big build in distillates, including diesel, as the peak season for U.S. road travel gets under way.
European shares dipped on Tuesday while German bond yields rose, with investors scrabbling for clarity over whether a high-level meeting on Greece's debt crisis might herald a significant breakthrough.
Crude oil prices dropped on Monday as the dollar rose and on expectations that OPEC production would remain high, stoking worries of oversupply despite declining U.S. rig operations.
U.S. shale oil producers, having weathered the worst price plunge in their industry's brief history, now face a dilemma: whether to stay in a defensive crouch after slashing their rig fleets, or start drilling more wells to capture a partial recovery in prices.
OPEC is likely to keep its output target unchanged when it meets on Friday because the global oil market appears to be in good shape and prices are expected to firm up from current levels, a senior Gulf OPEC delegate told Reuters.
Oil fell below $65 a barrel on Tuesday, pressured by the possibility that U.S. shale oil producers could increase drilling activity and by a stronger dollar.
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