On Wednesday, the U.S. crude stayed more than $50 per barrel following a dip below the mark on this week first time ever since April’s earlier days. “Crude oil prices dropped on continued fears of a supply glut with Iran set to flood global markets”.

A strong greenback, boosted by the prospect of higher US interest rates, has also dented demand for dollar-priced oil, helping push prices downwards. Brent North Crude for September, the benchmark for European, African and Middle Eastern crude oil prices, fell 35 cents and was trading in London at $56.69 a barrel at mid-day. Benchmark Brent crude has fallen more than 10 percent in July.

The August US crude futures dipped 13 cents at $50.76 per barrel. It said output from these two countries has risen by 1.6 million to 1.7 million barrels a day since November, which is twice the level of exports expected from Iran by the end of 2016.

Prices briefly rose, but then retreated again Thursday as brokers and analysts said pessimism about the market is unrelenting. However, with refineries all over the globe still operating at nearly maximum levels so as to benefit from robust profit margins, a sign of glut in the market for crude oil could be transferred to refined products.

The country has urged fellow Opec members to make way for it to pump 4m barrels a day when sanctions are lifted, up from 2.85m in June, as said by data compiled by Bloomberg. It is important to state that crude has been in a strong downtrend over the last couple of weeks on the back of over-supply concerns.

The DPR focused on the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus, Niobrara, Permian, and Utica, which altogether accounted for 95 per cent of US oil production increases and all US natural gas production increases from 2011 to 2013.

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery dropped 3.3% to US$49.19 a barrel. “This was 2.1 million more than what the organisation said it will maintain”, Aw said in a market commentary. The outage was supportive to Brent as oil from the field contributes to the calculation of the futures price.

Oil prices edged lower on today as data showed Saudi Arabian exports fell to the lowest in five months despite record output, while a resurgence in US drilling activity seen earlier this month seemed to fizzle out.

Even higher exports from Iran following the landmark July 14 accord to ease sanctions may do little to check oil’s advance, Ross said.