According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the higher supply from competing oil producers will probably lead to a lower-than-expected demand for the OPEC crude in 2013.

In a move which will mark a notable advancement in the direction of establishing China's crude oil futures contract in the later part of 2013, a test run of Shanghai Futures Exchange's international trading platform will be held today, January 8.

In its attempts to seek an amount of $55 billion required for the funding of its acquisition of TNK-BP, Russian crude producer Rosneft has worked out a $50 billion advance-payment oil supply deal with trading firms Glencore International and Vitol Group, and has also raised loans from global banks. As a result, the company has raised $67 billion in all, for the TNK-BP acquisition.

In what apparently is an upshot of the growing concerns about the US lawmakers' failure to avert a fiscal crisis, oil prices witnessed the biggest drop in over two weeks on Friday.