Oil Prices Are Tanking
L Marie via FlickrOil prices are getting destroyed today after an extremely bearish Energy Department supplies report.
Brent is off -2.40 percent at $108, while WTI is down -2.05 percent at $95.19 as DOE reported inventories had increased 2.7 million barrels compared with just 2 million, according to Stephen Schork.
That's a big sell-off for one day.
But zooming out, it's clear futures are now in their second-consecutive year of trending declines.
Here's the chart for Brent. Going back to 2011, it's off nearly -14 percent.
And here's the chart for crude/WTI, down nearly -20 percent for the same period:
This chart explains what's going on: over the same period, inventories have increased more than 11 percent.
While part of this may have been due to the tepid economic recovery during this period, it's mostly more evidence for Citi's Seth Kleinman and Ed Morse that thanks to the rise of natural gas and higher fuel efficiency, "The End Is Nigh" for ever-rising oil demand, and thus prices too.