On Tuesday oil prices gave up earlier gains obtained after the Paris attacks and the French airstrikes in Syria, and traders began to focus on the global glut in petroleum
products again.
December crude oil declined 0.3% to trade at $41.62 per barrel.
January Brent futures dipped 0.39% to trade at $44.6 per barrel.
In spite of the Paris attacks and French airstrikes in Syria that followed, prices would remain low for the rest of the year and into 2016 as oil markets stay oversupplied, analysts say. Production is expected to outpace demand by 0.7-2.5 million barrels per day.
Many traders are even positioning themselves for further price falls.
ANZ said they expect crude oil production from shale fields to dip just 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. The bank added it results from falling shale production costs and healthy refined oil production sales.
"The well supplied crude market, record high inventories in OECD and lack of a material threat to the oil facilities in the Middle East from the military escalation against IS in Syria are going to prevent geopolitical premiums building in oil prices in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks," BMI Research said.
Money managers trimmed their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions to the weakest level in three months during the week to November 10, Reuters said referring to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The commission cut its combined futures and options position in New York and London by 27,456 contracts to 127,351 during the period.
The cut in bets on higher prices has come simultaneously with great amounts of contracts actively betting on a further drop in oil.
So far, U.S. crude oil prices have been below $50 per barrel for longer than they were during the peak of the global crisis in late 2008-early 2009. That time they were under that figure for 74 consecutive days and another 14 intermittent days before and after.
In 2015, U.S. crude has been below $50 a barrel for 84 days since July and another 44 days earlier in the year.
