Oil prices fall as Venezuela says market is 10 pct oversupplied

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday after Venezuela said that global crude supplies needed to fall by 10 percent in order to bring production down to consumption levels, confirming analyst views that markets remain heavily oversupplied.

Global oil supply of 94 million barrels per day needs to fall by about a tenth if it is to match consumption, Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said on Monday.

International benchmark Brent crude oil futures were trading at $45.80 per barrel at 0048 GMT, down 15 cents from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 25 cents at $43.05 a barrel.

 

"Global production is at 94 million barrels per day, of which we need to go down 9 million barrels per day to sustain the level of consumption," Del Pino said in an interview with state oil company PDVSA's internal TV station.

Del Pino is also president of PDVSA.

The statements came the same day as credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said that a proposed bond swap by PDVSA was a "distressed exchange" that would be "tantamount to default" if completed, a blow to the cash-strapped firm's effort to seek a financial lifeline.

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)