Investing.com -- On a day when crude futures experienced one of its sharpest losses on the year, a report released by Platts on Monday found that Opec production last month continued its upswing to remain at its highest level since October, 2012.
In June, output by the world's largest oil cartel increased by 170,000 to 31.28 million barrels per day, nearly 1.3 million bpd above its targeted production ceiling of 30 million. A spike in production by 0.10 million in both Saudi Arabia and Iraq helped spur the fourth consecutive monthly increase. Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest producers and exporters of crude, saw its output last month increase to 10.35 million barrels per day, marking the fourth straight month of advances. Saudi Arabia produced 10.00 million bpd, 10.10 million bpd in March and April respectively, before ramping up output to 10.25 million bpd in May.
In Iraq, output also increased by 0.10 bpd to 3.75 million bpd, amid an agreement between between Baghdad and Erbil to bring 250,000 barrels per day of Kurdish exports under the umbrella of Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO. Meanwhile, production in Libya declined less than expected by 0.02 to 0.41 million bpd. Production in Venezuela was flat on a month-to-month basis at 2.34 million bpd.
On Monday, WTI crude prices plummeted by more than 5% to dip under $53, while brent crude futures tumbled more than 6% to below $57 in one of its worst sessions in 2015. A lack of progress in Greek Debt and Iranian Nuclear negotiations, as well as the rollout of emergency measures by the People's Bank of China to help boost its floundering equities market, weighed on crude. Falling demand in gasoline, following the Fourth of July holiday also applied downside pressure on Texas Long Sweet futures.
In its latest weekly report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week that U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels, halting an eight week streak of weekly draws. A day later, oil services firm Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) reported that U.S. oil rigs increased by 12 to 640, ending a 29-week streak of declining stockpiles. As a result, crude futures have declined by nearly 12% over the last week.