Advances in U.S. shale oil production technologies are contributing the to supply surplus and weighing on any oil price gains. It has become much cheaper for the upstart U.S. shale producers to extract oil out of the ground, but the growth rate of U.S. oil product has also recently slowed.
“Due to this combination of production cuts and growing demand, oil could head up to its 2017 high, just above $55, or even $60 per barrel by year-end. A global supply glut has plagued the market for several years, and OPEC member countries and non-member producers have vowed to implement cuts to curb such oversupply,” reports CNBC.
During the third quarter, investors departed USO in droves as the ETF bled more than $1.2 billion in assets.
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