© Reuters. An oil pump in a field in the US state of Texas, in a photo by the Reuters archive.
by Isabel Qua
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – He pulled out on Tuesday, extending losses by 1% in the previous session as concerns increased over slowing fuel demand in China, the world’s second largest oil consumer, due to COVID restrictions. 19.
January crude oil futures fell four cents to 92.77 a barrel by 0112 GMT. The December contract expired on Monday at $ 94.83 a barrel, down one percent.
US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 18 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $ 86.35 a barrel.
On Monday, COVID-19 restrictions in China forced the temporary closure of Disney Resort (NYSE 🙂 in Shanghai, while Apple’s iPhone (NASDAQ 🙂 phone production at a large facility in China could decline by 30% in November.
“With China sticking to the zero-Covid policy, oil demand expectations have been overshadowed by last week’s record US oil export data,” said CMC Markets analyst Tina Ting.
Strict epidemic restrictions reduced factory activity in China in October and reduced imports from Japan and South Korea.
U.S. oil production jumped to nearly 12 million barrels a day in August, the highest level since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, putting pressure on prices, even as shale oil companies have announced that they do not expect production to accelerate in the coming months.
Brent and West Texas crude finished higher in October, posting their first monthly gains since May, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia-led allies announced plans to reduce the production of 2 million barrels per day.
OPEC raised its forecast for medium- and long-term global oil demand on Monday, saying $ 12.1 trillion in investment is needed to meet this demand despite the shift to renewable energy.
US President Joe Biden on Monday called on oil and gas companies to use their record profits to cut costs for Americans and increase production, or pay a higher tax rate.
(Prepared by Ahmed Maher for the Arabic Bulletin)
