Crude oil prices fell further in mid-December 2025, as concerns over a glutted market and weak demand worldwide persisted, despite a large draw in U.S. crude inventories. Despite the API information that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 4.8 million barrels, growing gasoline and diesel stockpiles pointed to slow pace of downstream usage. The worries of oversupply were exaggerated due to increasing output and cheaper exports from OPEC+ members and Russia and India and China continue to buy massive amounts of Russian oil. Crude oil also came under pressure from macroeconomic, weak manufacturing activity and signs of abundant supply growth beginning in early 2026. As per ChemAnalyst, diminishing price support and cautious demand forecasts imply that crude oil markets could continue to be under pressure in the short term.
