NEW YORK: Oil prices edged lower on Thursday, pressured by expectations of lower US fuel demand at the end of the summer travel season and by the restart of Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline.
Brent crude futures fell 46 cents, or 0.7 percent, to USD67.59 by 12:04 p.m. ET (1604 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 57 cents, or 0.9 percent, at USD63.58 a barrel.
The upcoming US Labour Day long weekend ends the summer driving season. The outlook is for lower US demand for gasoline, even as crude oil supplies rise due to an OPEC+ plan to raise September output by 547,000 barrels per day. The mismatch will cause oil inventories to rise, Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.
“That will be weighing on energy futures across the spectrum as summer turns into fall, and as gasoline demand tapers off and refiners shift to the lower-priced winter grade product,” they said. Russian crude supplies to Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline have restarted after an outage caused by a Ukrainian attack in Russia last week, Hungarian oil company MOL and Slovakia’s economy minister said on Thursday.
Traders are also watching out for how India responds to pressure from the US to stop buying Russian oil, after President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50 percent on Wednesday.
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