Oil posts 8% weekly loss on potential OPEC+ supply additions
Oil prices settled higher on Friday but posted a weekly loss of 8.1% after news of potential increases to OPEC+ supply.
Brent crude futures closed up 42 cents, or 0.7%, at $64.53 a barrel by, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 40 cents, or 0.7%, at $60.88.
For the week, Brent fell 8.1%, the largest weekly loss in over three months. WTI tumbled 7.4% in the week.
Eight OPEC+ countries are likely to further raise oil output on Sunday with the group’s leader Saudi Arabia pushing for a large increase to regain market share and Russia suggesting a more modest rise, four people with knowledge of the OPEC+ talks said.
Potentially higher OPEC+ supply and slowing global crude refinery runs owing to maintenance and a seasonal dip in demand in the months ahead are set to weigh on market sentiment, analysts said.
Meanwhile, crude oil flowed through a pipeline from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to Turkey on Saturday for the first time in 2-1/2 years, Iraq’s oil ministry said earlier this week.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump gave Hamas until Sunday night to agree to his proposal to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week as refining activity and demand softened, according to the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, further weighing on prices.
On the supply side, producers cut oil rigs by 2 to 422, oilfield service provider Baker Hughes said.
Elsewhere on Friday, a fire broke out at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery overnight, though a county official said the flames had been confined to one area. The refinery is one of the largest on the U.S. West Coast, with capacity of 290,000 bpd.
Source : Reuters.com
