Oil price falls below $55 first time in 4 months

As of midday, July 24, August futures for North Sea Brent crude oil declined by 0.77% to $54.87 per barrel, while August futures for WTI grew by 0.37% to $48.63 per barrel, Russian information agency Prime reported.

Decline in oil prices is caused by a number of factors, including concerns of market players regarding Iran's expected return to the oil market.

As reported earlier, Iran and six world powers concluded on July 14 an agreement that would lift sanctions on Iran but place strict limits on its nuclear programme for more than a decade, in a historic compromise designed to stop the spread of atomic weapons.

"We continue to have concerns that the oil market could be oversupplied for longer than we previously anticipated," said Jason Gammel, oil analyst at Jefferies, according to The Wall Stret Journal.

Earlier, Morgan Stanley analysts said they were pretty pessimistic about oil prices in 2015, drawing comparisons to some of the worst oil slumps of the past 45 years. Analysts warned that the current downturn could even rival the iconic price crash of 1986.

Later on Friday, Baker Hughes, the world's largest oilfield services company, published data on the total number of drilling rigs in the United States. A week earlier, the total number of rigs in the United States dropped by six, amounting to 857 rigs - a decline of 54.1%, or 1014 rigs in annual terms. The number of drilling rigs has stabilized in recent weeks, and the reduction of their number has not yet led to a significant drop in oil production in the United States, remaining at 10-year highs, according to the report.

U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that commercial crude oil inventories in the United States (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) rose unexpectedly by 2.5 million barrels to 463.9 million barrels for the week ended July 17. The analysts projected reduction of inventories by 2.258 million barrels during the week - to 459.1 million barrels.