Oil prices drop amid ample supplies

Oil prices continued their downward trends Thursday as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said it expected the current supply surplus responsible for the slump in oil prices to continue through 2015.

OPEC's crude oil production averaged 30.20 million barrels per day (mb/d) in December, an increase of 0.14 mb/d over the previous month, the 12-country cartel said in its monthly oil market report issued Thursday.

OPEC said "bearish sentiment in the oil market persists as it faces an increasing overhang of at least" 1 million barrels per day. In 2015, required OPEC crude is projected at 28.8 mb/d, following a downward adjustment of 0.1 mb/d from its prior estimate, the report said.

Non-OPEC oil supply is estimated to have grown by 1.98 mb/d in 2014, driven by higher than expected growth seen at the end of the year. In 2015, non-OPEC oil supply is projected to grow by 1.28 mb/ d.

U.S. crude production climbed 60,000 barrels a day to 9.19 mb/d of the week ended Jan. 9, the highest in weekly estimates that started in January 1983, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s data released Wednesday.

U.S. crude supplies of last week increased 5.4 million barrels to 387.8 million. Meanwhile, inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the contract, gained 1.8 million barrels to 33. 9 million barrels.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery dived 2.23 U.S. dollars to settle at 46.25 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February delivery dropped 1.02 dollars to close at 47.67 dollars a barrel.