Crude futures fall on output promise

News from OPEC and Nigeria are largely credited with influencing the drop in crude oil futures for the sixth straight day on Monday.

News came out of Nigeria that a strike by oil workers that had been scheduled for Monday had been averted when the union ironed out labor issues with oil companies and the government.

OPEC announced that they will consider raising oil production in May in order to meet a projected upturn in demand in the third quarter of the year. OPEC also implied that it considers $50 per barrel to be a realistic top limit for crude oil prices because that seems to be a level that would not damage growth.

However there was evidence Monday that the rise in energy prices is currently damaging industry on a global level.

UK producer price inflation data showed that input prices have been rising 1.8 percent on a month-to-month basis.

More than half of this rise was blamed on the rise in oil prices. Companies seem to be absorbing this increase rather than passing it on to consumers, considering that the output price has only risen 0.6 percent in the same period.