Oil prices fell on Monday

International benchmarks for oil prices fell on Monday (2 May) as Reuter reported OPEC oil production in April grew by 170,000 barrels a day from last month at 32.64 million barrels a day. The news sent the bear down the market as concern over excessive supply fundamental continue to grip traders. Analysts believed that OPEC production output could have been much higher without outages in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Nigeria. A positive point for oil market is that active oilrigs count in the US dropped another 11 to 332 rigs last week, lowest level in more than sixe years, according to Baker Hughes. Industry experts are also watching car demand in China to gauge the potential of oil demand in the near term.

WTI closed at $44.78/b (-$1.14) June delivery

Brent closed at $45.83/b (-$1.54) July delivery