Last week began with a sharp drop in oil prices, the main reason was the resumption of production at the largest field in Libya.

December Brent futures fell 2.6% to $ 41.71 per barrel. American WTI crude oil again dropped below 40: contracts for delivery in December were concluded on the NYMEX at $ 39.45 per barrel, having lost 3% in price.

The National Oil Company (NOC) has announced that it is lifting force majeure from the giant Esh-Sharara field, which was blocked by the Russian-backed Marshal Khalifa Haftar for more than 9 months. After the entry of Turkish troops into Libya, Haftar's forces were defeated, thrown back from the capital and were forced to lift the blockade from oil ports, due to which the largest oil exporter in Africa was forced to leave the world market. Production in Libya has already grown from 40 thousand barrels per day in the summer to 300 thousand. According to Bloomberg, after the launch of Ash-Sharara, production will be doubled - up to 600 thousand barrels per day. It will be followed by another large El Feel field with a capacity of 70 thousand barrels per day.

Also last week OPEC's October report was released that notes that world oil production in September fell by 7.83 million barrels per day in annual terms - to 90.71 million barrels per day. At the same time, the share of OPEC oil in global production in September remained at the level of the previous month - 26.6%. Commercial stocks of oil and oil products in OECD countries in August decreased by 20.7 million barrels in monthly terms and exceeded the 5-year average by 219.3 million barrels. The organization retained its forecast for a drop in global oil demand in 2020 by 9.5 million barrels per day, while slightly worsened the forecast for 2021 - now it expects demand to grow by 6.5 million barrels per day against 6.6 million in the previous forecast , the organization said in its October report. The forecast for oil production in countries outside the organization in 2020 has been raised against the backdrop of its rapid recovery in the United States, now it expects a fall by 2.4 million barrels per day instead of 2.7 million barrels per day expected in September. At the same time, the forecast for 2021 was slightly lowered: now OPEC predicts an increase in production outside the cartel by 0.9 million barrels per day instead of the previously expected 1 million. Thus, production outside OPEC in 2020 is expected to reach 62.8 million barrels per day, and in 2021 - 63.68 million.

OPEC Secretary General Mohamed Barkindo is generally optimistic about the state of the world oil market, but, nevertheless, he does not expect a breakthrough growth in the consumption of raw materials. Barkindo believes the worst is over and the market is on a recovery path. At the Energy Intelligence Forum, Barkindo ensured that oil prices do not fall as sharply as they did before, as OPEC, OPEC + will continue to make every effort to avoid the historic fall that the world has witnessed before.