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September 10, 2024 – 18:31
New York, Sep 10 (EFE).- The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell 4.5% on Tuesday to below $66, its lowest level since December 2021, following OPEC’s downgrade of demand outlook.
At around midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in October were down $3.12 from the previous session’s close, to $65.59 a barrel.
Oil prices fell last week on concerns about demand in China, where electric vehicles are gaining traction, and that trend was exacerbated today by OPEC’s second downgrade of its outlook in two months, analysts said.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has revised downwards its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2024 and 2025 to 104.24 million barrels per day (mbd) and 105.99 mbd, respectively.
The cut is linked to the fact that crude oil prices are at annual lows, a reason that also led OPEC and its allies last Thursday to postpone until at least early December the increase in production they had planned for October.
Texas crude rose on Monday due to the threat posed by Tropical Storm Francine to energy infrastructure in the southern United States, which has forced production to be halted at several points in the Gulf of Mexico, but the trend was reversed today.
Analysts are also expecting a weekly increase in US commercial crude oil stocks, which would be the first after four weeks of declines and which suggests a slowdown in the week; official data will be released tomorrow. EFE
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