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Oil Prices Fall on Fed Rate Rise Jitters

Iraqi laborers work at the Rumaila oil refinery in Zubair near Basra Iraq

Oil traded near $47 a barrel before data forecast to show that gasoline stockpiles declined while crude inventories increased in the US, the world's largest oil consumer.

"Either way, despite some increases in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Opec production seems to be flattening with the outages in Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela, knocking out some 3-million barrels of daily production and no one is holding their breath they'll return soon", said Nunan.

Oil prices had rallied last week and entered a bull market - a 20-percent rise from recent lows - after OPEC and Russian Federation announced plans to discuss the supply crisis, which has hammered the crude market for more than two years. "Our crude oil and condensate exports have now reached 2.5 million barrels per day and crude oil (exports) have exclusively hit 2.1 million barrels per day", Zangeneh told the state television on Monday night.

An Iranian oil worker rides his bicycle at a Tehran oil refinery, south of the capital. In its latest report, Baker Hughes reported that the crude oil rig count remained unchanged at 406 in the week ending on August 19 after gaining for eight consecutive weeks. For instance, if Iraq's oil minister agreed to a freeze but Kurds wanted to raise production, would they allow it?

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi addresses the media during a joint news conference with Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in Arbil.

Shell said it had shut production at its Coulomb field in the region after BP shut its Na Kika platform ahead of Tropical Depression Nine. It would only be increased if there is an agreement, he added.

The central government in Baghdad has been locked in a dispute with the KRG since 2014, when the Kurds began selling their oil independently. Sources in Erbil have said splitting the Kirkuk flows would divide the Kurds and complicate the task of fighting the ultra-hardline militants.

So earlier today, Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh made the most explicit statement on the topic, when he laid out the conditions under which Iran would be willing to "help other oil producers stabilize the world market".

OPEC members' 2015 net oil export revenue was the lowest level in a decade, with significant implications for the fiscal condition of member countries that rely heavily on oil sales to fund social programs and to import other goods and services, according to EIA.

With the end of the driving season in Q3, 2016 in the USA, gasoline demand could see a seasonal downward correction, which would pressure oil prices.

The incredible volatility in the crude oil market has continued throughout the summer.

stayontheblack.com

Oil Prices Fall on Fed Rate Rise Jitters