As sluggish manufacturing activity harmed the outlook for global demand and the dollar remained strong, oil prices decreased marginally in early Asian trade on Friday, setting the stage for a weeklong loss. While U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slid 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $78.91 per barrel, Brent crude dropped 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $83.20 per barrel.
For the second week running, crude price declines are anticipated to range from 2% to 3%. The price of oil ended the previous session slightly higher after Dutch consultancy Insights Global published information suggesting that gasoil supplies held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub decreased by 3% in the most recent week.
Since the global economies reported declining factory activity, oil has been declining for the majority of the week. August saw a third consecutive month of decreased industry activity in Japan. Britain’s economy appeared to be on track to contract in the current quarter, while economic activity in the eurozone also decreased more than anticipated. In recent months, the rise of India’s oil consumption has also slowed due to high inflation and a decline in world commerce.
After growing by 415,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021–2022, the rise in the first seven months was approximately 255,000 bpd. On the supply side, the market largely ignored earlier this week’s news indicating that Saudi Arabia would probably continue its production cuts of 1 million barrels per day until October. Despite the fact that U.S. sanctions are still in effect, Iran’s oil minister recently stated that the country’s crude oil output will hit 3.4 million barrels per day by the end of September.
