Since the price of over $100 per barrel of Brent oil on August 18, prices for oil have been dropping. The oil costs $57 per barrel today, WTI dropped to $53, the minimum since the crisis in 2009.
The falling oil prices are motivated by fears of investors of a surplus of oil on the market in the context of drastic extraction of shale oil in the U.S., cutting its oil imports greatly. U.S. oil reserves increased by 7.3 million barrels to 387.2 million barrels in the week that ended on December 19.
Hong Sung Ki, a senior analyst of Samsung Futures Inc., said that the surplus of oil on the market was not a problem that could be used solved in the near future. He reminded that OPEC states under the leadership of Saudi Arabia wanted to keep the volumes of oil extraction high.
