1st LD Writethru: Oil prices retreat amid growing supplies
Xinhua, June 12, 2015 Adjust font size:
Oil prices dropped Thursday as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) increased their output.
OPEC supply edged up 50,000 barrels per day in May to 31.33 million barrels per day (mb/d), the highest rate since August 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Oil Market Report.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates pumped at record monthly rates to keep output more than 1 mb/d above OPEC's official supply target for a third month running.
The cartel's output accounted for around 40 percent of the global crude output. OPEC maintained its output quota of 30 million barrels per day at last Friday's meeting.
The estimate of global demand growth has been revised up to 1.7 mb/d for the first quarter of 2015 and 1.4 mb/d for all of 2015, according to IEA.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected Tuesday U. S. crude oil production averages 9.4 million b/d in 2015 and 9.3 million b/d in 2016.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery moved down 66 cents to settle at 60.77 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery decreased 59 cents to close at 65.11 dollars a barrel. Endite