Oil is trading lower today after comments from Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi who reiterated on Sunday that Saudi Arabia and the OPEC, whose members account for 40% of worldwide production, won't cut production as long as non-OPEC-producers do not cooperate. He repeated again that the market determines the price and that Saudi Arabia will keep production unchanged in order to fight for market share. Brent Crude lost -1.14% and dropped below USD55 currently trading at USD54.69 a barrel. On January 13th Crude set a low at USD45.19. West Texas Intermediate lost -1.91% currently quoted at USD45.68. On Friday Baker Hughes reported that the number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. further declined for the 15th consecutive week to the lowest level in 4 years.

Oil prices declined sharply in recent months as worldwide supply exceeds demand in a period of low global economic growth, pushing stockpiles to record highs and weighing on prices.