2024-01-08 21:15:16
London (dpa)
Oil futures prices began the new week’s trading yesterday with a decline, against the backdrop of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s announcement to reduce the selling prices of its oil to all regions, which means that the decline in global demand expectations exceeded fears of production disruption in Libya and the repercussions of tensions in the Red Sea. Bloomberg News Agency reported that the price of Brent crude oil, the global oil standard, fell to less than $78 per barrel, after rising last week by 2.2%.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the US oil standard, was also trading at less than $73 per barrel.
This comes while the giant Saudi oil company, Aramco, reduced the selling price of Arab Light crude oil to Asia by $2 per barrel, which is more than expected, in light of continued weak demand in the global market.
The decline in prices comes as a result of the rise in production in oil-producing countries that are not members of the OPEC+ group of oil-exporting countries, and fears of a continued slowdown in global demand growth during the current year, especially in China, the largest oil importing country in the world. At the same time, analysts at Wall Street investment banks expect continued unfavorable conditions in the oil market, which has led to lowering their price forecasts.
Warren Patterson, head of the commodities sector at the Dutch banking group ING Group, said: “Supply disruptions and tension in the Middle East still continue to provide some support to prices… In the absence of tensions in the Middle East, we doubt that there will be a significant rise in prices.” Prices are in light of the state of balance in the market during the first half of 2024.”
The price of Brent crude fell by 1.3% to $77.72 per barrel for next March delivery by 6:22 a.m. London time, while the price of West Texas Intermediate crude fell by 1.5% to $72.74 per barrel for next February delivery.
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