Oil slides second straight day as glut worries return

Reuters: Oil prices fell for a second day on Tuesday, retreating further from the year’s highs hit last week, as rising output renewed worries about the global glut of crude, the U.S. dollar rebounded and equity markets weakened.

Output from the biggest oil producers in the Middle East jumped last month or could surge in the near term, data showed this week, ahead of a U.S. government report on Wednesday likely to cite record high crude stockpiles.

“There are enough supply stories out there to slow or temper any gains,” Energy Aspects analyst Richard Mallinson said, adding that the only upside came from the possibility of longer-term U.S. production declines.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 80 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $45.03 a barrel by 1:10 p.m. EDT (1710 GMT).

U.S. crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were down $1.15, or 2.6 percent, at $43.62 a barrel.

Iraq said its oil shipments from southern fields averaged 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, up from 3.3 million bpd in March.

Production from top exporter Saudi Arabia was 10.15 million bpd in April, but sources said that it could soon return to a near-record level of 10.5 million bpd.

Iran is also raising output after its emergence from Western sanctions in January and has nearly doubled exports to almost 2 million bpd since the start of the year.