The price of Brent crude oil declined below $97 a barrel today amid weak Chinese industrial data and a strong US dollar.
According to Reuters, Brent for November delivery dropped 61 cents to $96.39 a barrel and US crude declined 72 cents to $92.82 a barrel.
The Chinese Government said that the country’s industrial profits fell 0.6% in August, compared with last year; in July, the country had witnessed a 13.5% increase.
However, a Reuters poll has revealed that the manufacturing industry in China may have steadied in September.
Meanwhile, the US dollar has hit a fresh four-year peak on Monday against a host of currencies.
Iran has urged Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members to make efforts to help offset the decline in oil prices, the news agency said.
Air raids, undertaken by US-led forces, have hit three makeshift oil refineries in northern-Syria.
A spokesman for Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Sunday that a strike has reduced Libya’s oil production by 25,000 barrels a day to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd); however, this production is still up from a low of 200,000 bpd earlier this year.