Oil heads for weekly loss as Chinese demand continues to underperform
Shafaq News/Oil prices fell on Friday on signs demand in China, the world's biggest crudeimporter, continues to underperform amid its uneven economic recovery.
Brent crudefutures were down 65 cents, or 0.9%, at $71.91 a barrel by 0450 GMT. U.S. WestTexas Intermediate crude futures were down 62 cents, or 0.9%, at $68.08.
For theweek, Brent is set to fall 2.7% while WTI is set to decline 3.3%.
"Whileoil prices have somewhat stabilised around the $71.00 level of support thisweek, the lack of a concrete bullish catalyst suggests that price recoveryremains tepid for now," Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG, said in anemail.
The prospectof higher supplies from the U.S. and OPEC+ along with doubts over China'seconomic recovery continue to be of concern, while the odds of a December ratecut are now "closer to a coin flip" under a less dovish FederalReserve, Yeap added.
China's oilrefiners in October processed 4.6% less crude than a year earlier, fallingyear-on-year for a seventh month, amid the closures of some plants and reducedoperating rates at smaller independent refiners, data from the National Bureauof Statistics showed on Friday.
The declinein run rates occurred as China's factory output growth slowed last month anddemand woes in its property sector showed few signs of abating even thoughconsumer spending increased, government data showed.
Oil pricesalso fell this week as major forecasters indicated market fundamentals remainedbearish.
TheInternational Energy Agency forecast global oil supply will exceed demand in2025 even if cuts remain in place from OPEC+, which includes the Organizationof the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, as risingproduction from the U.S. and other outside producers outpaces sluggish demand.
TheParis-based agency raised its 2024 demand growth forecast by 60,000 barrels perday to 920,000 bpd, and left its 2025 oil demand growth forecast little changedat 990,000 bpd.
OPEC thisweek cut its forecast for global oil demand growth for this year and 2025,highlighting weakness in China, India and other regions, marking the producergroup's fourth-consecutive downward revision to its 2024 outlook.
U.S. crudeinventories last week rose by 2.1 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration(EIA) said on Thursday, much more than analysts' expectations for a750,000-barrel rise.
Gasolinestocks fell by 4.4 million barrels last week to the lowest since November 2022,the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a600,000-barrel build. ?Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heatingoil, also fell unexpectedly by 1.4 million barrels, the data showed.
(Reuters)
