Investing.com - Oil prices were under slight pressure in early European morning trade on Thursday, struggling near the lowest level in around ten months amid lingering concerns over strong shale output growth in the U.S.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract was at $42.36 a barrel by 3:05AM ET (0705GMT), down 17 cents, or around 0.4%. The U.S. benchmark fell to its lowest since August 11 at $42.05 a day earlier.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for August delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 18 cents to $44.64 a barrel, after hitting $44.35 in the prior session, a level not seen since November 14.
Oil prices lost more than 2% on Wednesday, plunging deeper into bear market territory, after U.S. government data revealed a rise in domestic crude production, which more than offset a drop in oil and gasoline stockpiles.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly supply report published Wednesday showed that domestic output climbed by 20,000 barrels to 9.35 million barrels a day, almost 8% higher than the same period last year.
The EIA report also showed that domestic crude supplies fell by 2.5 million barrels for the week ended June 16, while gasoline stockpiles declined by 600,000 barrels.
Oil prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as concern over rising U.S. shale output offset production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members.
Last month, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
So far, the production-cut agreement has had little impact on global inventory levels due to rising supply from producers that are exempt from the deal, such as Libya and Nigeria and a relentless increase in U.S. shale output.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for July inched down half a cent to $1.404 a gallon, while July heating oil lost 0.4 cents to $1.360 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for July delivery ticked up 0.4 cents to $2.897 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day.