No signs of voluntary production cuts from larger oil producers still

According to Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, the oil price looks set to remain at its current level for quite some time. There are still no signs that the major oil producers might be willing to reduce their supply voluntarily. 

Oil prices came under pressure yesterday because of falling equity markets and growing risk aversion. Brent fell in price by 2.6% and is trading this morning at $47.5 per barrel. WTI even shed somewhat more and dropped to $44.4 per barrel. 

According to its deputy minister for natural resources and ecology, Russia plans this year to scale up its oil production by 1 million to 526 million tons, equivalent to a daily output of 10.56 million barrels. 

"Though this would fall short of the previous target of 530.5 million tons, this is not in our opinion the result of a voluntary reduction of supply but is due rather to difficult financing conditions and the low prices", says Commerzbank.