By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped in early
trading in Asia on Monday despite a fourth weekly fall in U.S.
drilling activity, with analysts pointing to the weak economic
outlook as the main reason for low crude prices.
The International Monetary Fund is likely to revise
downwards its estimates for global economic growth due to slower
growth in emerging economies, IMF head Christine Lagarde said in
a newspaper interview. ID:nL5N11X0QV
In line with bearish sentiment, Brent crude futures LCOc1
were at $48.27 per barrel at 0024 GMT, down 33 cents from their
last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1
were at $45.34 a barrel, down 36 cents.
Crude futures are now down over 10 percent since the
beginning of the month, and rating agency S&P cut its Brent and
WTI forecasts late last week by $5 to $50 per barrel and $45 per
barrel respectively for this year and said it saw 2016 prices at
$55 for Brent and $50 for WTI. ID:nL1N11V0D5
The price fall came despite an ongoing fall in drilling
activity in the United States.
U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a fourth week in a row
last week, a sign the continued weak prices were causing energy
firms to reduce drilling plans. ID:nL1N11V1LW
Yet analysts said that U.S. production was holding up
despite lower drilling.
"A rapid draw-down of the observed backlog of uncompleted
wells could lead to higher production later this year and in
2016," Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said.
(Editing by Joseph Radford)