Crude oil prices were down on Thursday as Democratic nominee Joe Biden was on the verge of winning the race for the White House on Wednesday evening.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $40.36 per barrel at 0701 GMT for a 2.11% decrease after closing Wednesday at $41.23 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $38.34 per barrel at the same time for a 2.07% decrease after it ended the previous session at $39.15 a barrel.
Oil prices showed an upward trend on Wednesday when US President Donald Trump prematurely declared victory in must-win states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
However, Democratic nominee Joe Biden was on the verge of winning the race for the White House as of Wednesday evening. A victory for Trump is seen as bullish for oil markets while a win for Biden is seen as bearish as he supports green policies more and takes a softer stance on Iran.
Meanwhile, US crude inventories fell by 8 million barrels to 484.4 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 30 against the market expectation of an 890,000-barrel rise, according to the latest crude oil inventories data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released late Wednesday, which supported higher prices.
The data showed that US crude oil production fell by 602,000 barrels per day (bpd) to approximately 10.9 million bpd during the same period. US crude output is now estimated at 11.2 million bpd in 2020 and 11.1 million bpd in 2021, down from 12.2 million bpd in 2019, according to the EIA's forecast.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute’s released its estimation of a fall of 8 million barrels in US crude oil inventories last week, compared to the market expectation of a 600,000-barrel decrease.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr