Oil price resumes its fall in Europe

Oil has again failed this morning to catch a break and is continuing to drop during Thursday’s morning trade in Europe.

Like equities around Asia, oil initially found itself in positive territory. The momentum coming into Thursday morning was relatively solid, with Wall Street making a late charge to claw back early declines.

But like climbing a greasy pole, it was unable to hang on to those gains and started to weaken.

This morning in Europe, Brent crude, the international benchmark, is down 0.9 per cent at $27.62 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate, its US counterpart, is down 1.2 per cent at $28.03.

On Wednesday, WTI slumped as much as 8 per cent, which took it below $27 a barrel – to an intra-day low of $26.19 – for the first time since September 24, 2003. Brent is also bumping around its lowest level since 2003.

Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency warned that with increased supply likely to come onto the market following the lifting of sanctions against Iran, the global oil market was at risk of “drowning in oversupply”.

“The message is clear: equilibrium in oil markets is now about supply; demand is a

sideshow,” analysts at DBS said bluntly.

This month alone, Brent crude is down 26 per cent, while WTI has slumped 28.3 per cent.