Oil cheaper on Monday evening on the background of profit taking

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By 17.05 GMT, futures for Brent crude fell 1.10 percent to $ 52.14 per barrel.

Futures for American oil WTI by this time traded at $ 48.19 per barrel, 0.66 percent lower than the previous closing.

American hedge funds are cutting rates on strengthening WTI for the second week in a row. At the same time, investors in Europe hold a different position, as evidenced by the growth of net long positions under contracts for the North Sea blend Brent.

The main factor of pressure on quotes was the increase in oil production in the U.S. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts growth to 9.4 million barrels per day in 2017 and 9.9 million barrels per day in 2018.

The decrease in the number of drilling in the U.S., which decreased by 5 pieces to 763 a week by August 18, does not inspire optimism to market players, given that the U.S. shale miners are not going to slow down and plan to increase the production of raw materials by at least 160,000 barrels per day this year.

The focus of investors' attention is data on weekly stocks of oil and petroleum products in the U.S. from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and official EIA statistics.