London — Oil prices fell more than 1% on Monday as investors made record cuts to bets on rising prices after strong drilling data from the US fed the concern about the effectiveness of Opec-led production cuts to curb a supply glut. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 60c at $51.16 a barrel at 9.34am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading 71c lower at $48.07 a barrel. "Speculative investors have thrown in the towel it seems. We’ve got record selling in the week ending March 14 and the bleeding has not stopped yet," said Carsten Fritsch, senior commodities analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "The continued increase in US oil rigs adds to the bearish sentiment." US drillers added 14 oil rigs in the week to March 17, bringing the total count up to 631, the most since September 2015, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. This extends a recovery that is expected to boost shale production by the most in six months in April. Growing US product...
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