Oil prices plunged Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration(EIA) reported a larger- than-expected increase in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. U.S. crude supplies of last week gained 4.2 million barrels to 482.7 million barrels, beating market's expectation and up 108.6 million barrels from a year earlier, said EIA in its weekly report.
Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U. S. contracts, gained 2.24 million barrels to 55.3 million barrels. U.S. crude production added 25,000 to 9.185 million barrels a day last week, said the report.
Meanwhile, crude production of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) in October slashed 256,000 per day to average 31.38 million barrels per day (mb/d), according to OPEC's monthly oil market report released Thursday.
The OPEC estimated that non-OPEC oil supply to average 57.24 mb/d in 2015, an increase of 0.72 mb/d.
The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery moved down 1. 18 U.S. dollars to settle at 41.75 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery decreased 1.75 dollars to close at 44.06 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
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