Crude oil, being the most important energy product in the current scenario used in the automobile, household and industrial sectors, has fallen below USD 100 per barrel. Crude oil considered as the ‘Mother of all Commodities’; the stockpiles rose to the 15 weeks high in the US reaching to the crude oil inventories to 4 million barrels in the week. The increase in the supply and the decrease in the demand for the oil due to the weaker growth prospects in the US have led this fall in price.

The WTI (West Texas Intermediate) Crude Oil futures dropped as much as 0.4% in the NYMEX. Similarly, the Brent Crude traded on ICE Futures Exchange dropped by 0.3%. Jobless claims in the US decreased by 15,000 to 358,000 in the week ended Oct. 12 from 373,000 of the prior period, though forty-eight states and territories reported an increase in claims, while four reported a decline. This shows that still the US economy has not revived and the investor’s sentiment is still not sturdy.

Brazil’s giant Libra field production is forecasted to exceed 1 million barrels a day when fully brought into play. Libra is considered as the potentially one of the top two biggest deep-water fields in the world. The auction on the oil field which started today, the Petrobras took 40 percent of the field in the auction whereas France's Total SA and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell Plc each had 20 percent of the partnership, while China National Petroleum Corp and China's CNOOC took 10 percent each. This is potentially to increase the oil supply in the world oil market.

Nigeria, considered as one of the top oil producer in Africa and also an OPEC member nation, contributing about 2.30 million barrels per day; the impediment by a Nigerian rebel group to shoot up a violent campaign is likely to disrupt oil production as it is potentially targeting offshore fields.

An alleged drop in the geo-political temperature in the Middle East combining with the increase in the stockpiles in the US with decreased demand due to the weaker boom projections of the world economy is supporting the fall in oil prices. The US’s investment in oil and gas exploration which is the largest producer and consumer of energy and also substitution of the oil by gas has also supported the decreased in the demand for oil.