The oil prices increased on the first day of November. The price of Brent crude rose by 9 cents or 0.15% to 59.71% a barrel. However, this was not enough to reverse the trend as the price of Brent crude as so far price decreased nearly by 4%.
The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 22 cents to $55.40 a barrel. Nevertheless, this week, the price of WTI crude declined by more than 4%.
There are several factors that affected oil prices such as rising global supply as well as the future of trade deal. The global economic problems along with uncertain future demand influenced the oil prices.
On Thursday, the media reported that Chinese officials have doubts about the possible long-term trade deal with the U.S. This information renewed the talks about the future of this protracted trade dispute.
It is important to mention that the U.S. is the largest oil producer, as well as the consumer. Also, it is important to say that China is the second-largest oil consumer in the world. In this situation, the problems connected with the trade war will hurt the oil industry.
U.S. crude inventories increased by 5.7 million barrels in the week to October 25. This result surpassed the analyst expectations as they thought that it would by 494,000 barrels.
Another important information is that U.S. crude production rose by nearly 600,000 barrels per day in August to 12.4 million.
Exxon Mobil and oil prices
On Friday, energy giant Exxon Mobil reported the quarterly results. According to this report, earnings fell to $3.17 billion or 75 cents per share. It means that in comparison with the same period in 2018 earnings declined from $6.24 billion to $3.17 billion.
The company increased oil production, but the profits in Exxon’s oil and gas production unit declined by 49% to $2.17 billion. The main problem was the lower oil prices and as a result, earnings fell to the lowest point in two years.
Exxon Mobil’s refining business is also in a difficult situation. In the last quarter earnings fell by 25% from last year to $1.23 billion.
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