Concerns about China’s economy, the world’s second-largest consumer, were worsened by news that national rail freight volumes logged their biggest-ever annual decline in 2015. This followed reports that China’s factory activity shrank for a 10th straight month in December and surveys across Asia showing industry struggling with slack demand. We are expecting a rise in crude oil inventories, which should put further downward pressure on prices, ” ANZ said.
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Iranian officials have repeatedly announced their will to increase oil exports as sanctions on the country are about to be removed. “Concerns about economic data have weighed on oil prices”.
USA benchmark West Texas Intermediate for February won 15 cents to $33.43.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday in response to the storming of its embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric on Saturday.
But in recent days, even as tensions have been growing between two key oil producing nations – Iran and Saudi Arabia – oil prices have been falling.
Brent crude futures fell to a fresh 11-year low on Thursday as a sliding yuan and an emergency halt in China’s stock trading left Asian markets in a turmoil, while a huge supply overhang and near-record output levels also continued to drag on oil prices. It’s not limited to the U.S. Oil-storage terminals in South Africa are full, and China-bound tankers have been seen waiting offshore until there is room to offload their shipments of crude, he said.
Within minutes of the Saudi announcement, global oil benchmark Brent rose over $1.2 to a high of $38.50 per barrel, before easing back to $37.48, up 20 cents.
Even though OPEC kingpin Saudi has stood firm on its strategy of not cutting the production ceiling in order to squeeze out smaller producers in the depressed market, supply adjustments-particularly in the US-are still taking “a lot longer than we’ve anticipated”, Darling told CNBC’s Squawk Box. Eventually, the US started relying less on oil import thanks to the huge scale of crude output.
Saudi Arabia won’t limit production and will seek to supply any demand from the market, Ali Al-Naimi, the country’s oil minister, said on 30 December on state television.
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The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will publish its closely watched weekly data at 1530 GMT. On Monday, the nationwide average price for a gallon of regular was $1.99, according to the auto club AAA – 22 cents cheaper than a year ago.
