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Oil falls $1 on weak Chinese demand, rate cut uncertainty
Oil prices fell $1 and were on track for a weekly loss on Friday, weighed down by weak Chinese demand, while concerns about oversupply offset a sharp drop in U.S. fuel inventories and rate cut uncertainty.
Brent crude futures fell $1.09, or 1.5%, to $71.47 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also fell
For the week, Brent is set to fall 3.3% and WTI 4.1%.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Thursday that U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week, far exceeding analysts’ expectations for a 750,000-barrel build.
The agency said at the same time that gasoline stocks fell by 4.4 million barrels last week to their lowest since November 2022, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 600,000-barrel increase.
Thedata also showed that stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, fell unexpectedly by 1.4 million barrels. The International Energy Agency forecast that global oil supply will exceed demand in 2025 even if cuts by the OPEC+ alliance, which includes OPEC members and allies such as Russia, continue amid rising output from the United States and other producers.
