HOUSTON: Oil prices settled higher on Friday but posted a weekly loss of 8.1percent after news of potential increases to OPEC+ supply.
Brent crude futures closed up 42 cents, or 0.7percent, at USD64.53 a barrel by, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 40 cents, or 0.7percent, at USD60.88.
For the week, Brent fell 8.1 percent, the largest weekly loss in over three months. WTI tumbled 7.4 percent in the week. “The expected increase in OPEC+ production and the Iraq/Kurdish pipeline beginning to flow after being shut in the past two years is keeping sellers present in crude,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial.
“Hamas is also starting negotiations with the Trump administration on a peace plan. Add in the bearish EIA storage data from earlier this week and it’s hard to be bullish crude in the near term,” Kissler said.
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.
“Demand indicators have fallen a touch through the Atlantic Basin as summer demand comes to an end.
The over-supplied implied balance from a fundamentals perspective starting in October is gaining ground,” said Rystad Energy analyst Janiv Shah.
JPMorgan analysts, meanwhile, said they believed September marked a turning point, with the oil market heading towards a sizeable surplus in the fourth quarter and into next year.
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