WTI slides below $49 to new session low

Crude oil prices continue to remain under selling pressure on the first trading of the week, pushing the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to a new session low at $48.60. Following the initial drop, the barrel of WTI was able to regain some of the losses and is now trading at $48.75, down 1.15% on the day.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that could allow the expansion of oil drilling activity in the United States to waters near California and other coastal areas. The increasing crude oil production has been the main reason why the OPEC/non-OPEC output cut deal hasn't had the intended impact on the prices and this latest order could even further add to the total amount of output from the U.S. Furthermore, earlier today, a report by Reuters suggested that the Saudi Aramco is planning to launch an oil terminal the Red Sea, which would increase the total loading and export capacity to 15 million bpd.

• Saudi Aramco to boost oil loading capacity with reopened terminal - RTRS

In the meantime, Friday's data showed that the drilling activity in the U.S. continued to widen as the Baker Hughes report highlighted that the number of active oil rigs increased by 9 to a total number of 697. 

Technical outlook

The barrel of WTI could face the first hurdle at $49 (psychological level) ahead of $49.75 (Apr. 28 high) and $50.20 (Apr. 26 high). To the downside, supports align at $48.20 (Apr. 27 low), $47.80 (Mar. 28 low) and $47 (Mar. 22 low/psychological level).