Rising tensions surrounding the US-China trade war continued to weigh on global oil markets, with WTI crude oil prices falling by over 1% on Monday over worries of falling demand amid a global economic slowdown.

At the time of writing, WTI crude oil is trading at around $53 per barrel. Crude futures had the worst performance since November 2018 in May 2019. Growing concerns in US production growth and rising inventories also fueled the steep decline in oil prices recently.

Weekly production in the US touched 12.3 million bpd after energy companies increased the number of oil rigs for the first time in four weeks. As a result, crude oil inventories in the US have climbed by 8.4% to 476.5 million barrels.