Commodity Daily News

Iraq Increases Oil Production by 8%; May Drive Oil Prices Lower

After making a sharp increase during the final hours of last week's trading, the price of Crude Oil appears to be stabilizing near $45.75 a barrel. Last Friday, the price of Crude Oil remained steady around $43 a barrel until the final hours of trading when the price jumped to reach almost as high as $47 a barrel prior to market close. However, most economists remain steady with their forecasts that the price of Crude Oil will continue downward once these small corrections lose momentum.

One of the reasons analysts claim the price of oil will sink in the coming days is because Iraq's oil producing and exporting capabilities has begun to increase these past few months. Increasing production by over 8% last month, Iraq, which remains outside of OPEC quotas while rebuilding its infrastructure, may actually put increased downward pressure on the price of Crude Oil unless the remaining OPEC countries cut their production to compensate for Iraq's sudden surge of oil surplus. Traders may want to look for the price of Crude Oil to continue on its downward slide.