While oil supply is expected to increase in the coming months, Brent and WTI prices are falling.
Oil prices are stalling, after their recent surge. While supply is expected to increase soon and demand remains weighed down by the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Brent and WTI lost nearly 1%, to $49 and $46 respectively. "The drop in oil prices this morning is a perfect example of a correction after a series of news that pushed the market too high" last week, commented Bjornar Tonhaugen, analyst at Rystad. The supply of black gold is expected to increase in the near future, this showers the momentum of the past week, according to him. "The number of oil platforms rising every week in the United States, Libyan production slowly increasing towards its full potential and that of Iran that is preparing to recover in the first quarter of 2021" are all bearish factors, he said in a note.

The offer of the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plus ten producing allies, identified under the acronym OPEC+, is also expected to rise from the first of January. The cartel, which is subject to drastic cuts in its production of black gold, agreed Thursday to return to the market 500,000 barrels daily next month, after four days of tough negotiations. Despite the prospects for demand from mass vaccination campaigns against Covid-19, the current situation remains worrying. The United States, for example, continues to record a very high number of daily coronavirus infections: the country most heavily affected by the epidemic (more than 282,000 deaths) recorded for the day of Sunday some 181,000 new cases and 1,110 deaths related to the coronavirus, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.