Oil prices fell 3% during early Asian trading on Tuesday after a media report stated that Israel would not target Iranian oil facilities, which allayed fears of supply disruption, especially from the oil-rich Middle East region, and after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) lowered its expectations for demand growth. Global oil prices in 2024 and 2025.
The two benchmarks fell 3% during early trading today after falling 2% yesterday.
Brent crude futures fell $2.27 to $75.19 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $2.22 to $71.60 per barrel.
Prices fell about $4 this week, nearly erasing the cumulative gains they made over seven sessions through Friday when investors became concerned about risks surrounding supplies as Israel plans to respond to an Iranian missile attack.
The American newspaper The Washington Post reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the United States that his country is ready to strike military targets in Iran and not nuclear or oil targets.
It is noteworthy that Iran’s oil production reaches about 3.4 million barrels per day, and about half of it is exported abroad, according to a report published by Bloomberg a few days ago based on data collected from private sources.
It has been reported recently that Israel intends to launch a painful strike against Iran targeting its oil facilities in response to the missile strike that Tehran directed at Israel on October 1. This has increased concerns in the global oil market.
“This is the third consecutive monthly cut, indicating that its previously optimistic forecasts will decline further,” analysts at ANZ Research said in a note on Tuesday.
They added, “(Iraq) is still not making any progress in the additional cuts it promised to compensate for excess production.”
Chinese demand declines
The decline in crude shipments to China, the world’s largest oil importer, during the first nine months of the year also affected prices, as data showed a decline in imports by about 3% compared to last year.
China is behind the bulk of the reduction in expectations for 2024, as OPEC reduced its expectations for Chinese demand growth to 580,000 barrels per day from 650,000 barrels per day.
As the Chinese government pledged to provide more support to the faltering real estate sector and indicated an increase in government borrowing, without revealing specific measures to stimulate consumption in China at a time when it showed…
China’s foreign trade data released today showed an unexpected slowdown in the growth of Chinese exports over the past month, which contributed to the continued decline in global oil prices.
