Oil Prices dip on fall in China demand

Singapore/London: Oil prices fell on Friday as weakening demand in China and surging US output weighed on markets despite supply woes in Venezuela and Iran on top of OPECs production cuts.

Brent crude futures fell 45 cents to $16.87 a barrel by 1333 GMT. US WTI crude futures recovered some earlier losses to trade 8 cents down at $65.87. On the week, both contracts were set to trade flat.

China’s May crude oil imports eased away from a record high hit the previous month, customs data showed on Friday, with state-run refineries entering planned maintenance.

May shipments were 39.05 million tonnes, or 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd). That compared with 9.6 million bpd in April.

Further weighing on prices has been rising US output, which hit another record last week at 10.8 million bpd.

That’s a 28 per cent gain in two years, putting the US close to becoming the world’s biggest crude producer, edging nearer to the 11 million bpd churned out by Russia.

The surge in US production has pulled down WTI into a discount versus Brent of more than $11 a barrel, its steepest since 2015.