Oil Set For Third Weekly Drop As Demand Fears Outweigh War Risk
Oil headed for a third straight weekly drop on growing concerns over global demand and the unwinding of the war-risk premium, while Saudi Arabia blamed speculators for the decline.
– Bloomberg
Global threshold Brent crude has edged a little higher past $80 per barrel on Friday; however, it is also down by around 5% this week. West Texas Intermediate is near to $76. Prices increased Thursday after the comments by the Saudi Energy Minister, which were identical to his criticism of the speculators in May, which was weeks before the kingdom had cut output.
Brent has plummeted almost 13% over the last few weeks over the bearish signals of demand from China, Europe, and the United States, while the flows from the Middle East were unaffected by the Israel and Hamas war.
Pierre Andurand, a hedge fund manager, had also pointed to bigger than expected supplies, which cited high production in the United States and Iran as the catalyst for the most recent retreat.
It is a sharp reversal from the late of September, when the Brent had flirted with $100 each barrel, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that projected an unprecedented decline in the inventories despite the record demand for fuel and the cuts in Saudi. Attention has now moved to a refining downturn within China and stubbornly higher rates of interest in the United States.
“Investors are wary of a global economic slowdown possibly denting demand for fuel, and that’s completely negating the fear of conflict escalation in the Middle East,”
as was said by Priyanka Sachdeva, who is a market analyst at Philip Nova Pte. The very recent plunge apparently is unwarranted, and
“prices are likely to find support on reduced supply and potential bottlenecks in the Persian Gulf,”
she added.
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