Oil futures open lower in electronic trading

* Brent ended last week down 24%; WTI off around 7%
* U.S. oil rig count falls by most in a month since 2015
* Canada oil/natural gas rig count falls to record low

By David Gaffen
NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. oil futures dipped in
electronic trading Sunday evening, extending losses from last
week that marked the eighth week of losses out of the last nine.
Trading was extremely volatile last week, in an extension of
the selling that has dominated trading since early March as
demand collapsed 30% due to the pandemic. Global production cuts
have not kept pace with the collapse in demand. U.S. West Texas Intermediate CLc1 futures were down 32
cents to $16.62 a barrel as of 6:15 p.m. ET (2215 GMT), while
Brent futures LCOc1 rose 12 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at
$21.56 a barrel.
Oil futures marked their third straight week of losses last
week, with Brent ending down 24% and WTI off around 7%.
Traders expect demand to fall short of supply for months due
to the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Investors
will be watching this week for results from oil majors including
Exxon Mobil XOM.N , BP Plc BP.L and Royal Dutch Shell
RDSa.L . Producers may not be slashing output quickly or deeply
enough to buoy prices, especially when global economic output is
expected to contract by 2% this year, worse than the financial
crisis. Storage is quickly filling worldwide, which could
necessitate more production cuts, even after the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia
agreed this month to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day.

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CHART; U.S. oil may inch up to $19.03 before falling
Brent oil may test support at $20 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>