ANKARA
Crude oil prices fell around 10 percent in two days after rallying for three weeks, when a U.S. agency revealed the country's oil inventories were at record-high levels.
The price of global benchmark Brent crude oil fell 9.97 percent since Tuesday, to as low as $53.07 per barrel on Thursday, while the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate, WTI, decreased 12.65 percent in the last two days, reaching as low as $47.36 per barrel, according to official figures.
The sudden slump in prices came after the commercial oil stocks in the U.S. revealed to be the highest in 80 years on a weekly basis for this time of year, and 30 years overall. According to the U.S.' Energy Information Administration in its weekly petroleum data, the crude oil inventories reached 413.1 million barrels.
"U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased by 6.3 million barrels from the previous week," said the administration on Wednesday.
"For this month, oil prices can lower a little bit if stocks continue to build," Thomas Pugh, a commodities economist at Capital Economics, a London-based independent research company, told The Anadolu Agency.
Price recovery in last three weeks
Both benchmarks were on the rise in the last three weeks due to major oil companies cutting their 2015 capital expenditures, and also because of the sharp fall in U.S. oil drilling rigs.
Oilfield Services Company Baker Hughes said in its weekly report last Friday that the number of oil drilling rigs in the U.S. suffered the largest single-weekly drop since 1987 by falling 94 units week-on-week.
In addition, many oil giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron, British Petroleum, and Royal Dutch Shell have announced cutting their capital expenditures and spending for 2015 amid falling prices.
Brent oil price recovered 28 percent in the last three weeks, while the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate increased 18 percent since Jan. 13.
"For the first half of 2015, prices will start to rise due to production cuts in the U.S.," Pugh said, adding "We are expecting oil prices to rise in the next couple of years."
Oil prices reached their lowest point in almost six years on Jan. 13, and fell more than 60 percent in the last seven months due to a glut of oil supply and low global demand for oil.
