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Oil futures edged lower Monday, consolidating after scoring a seventh straight weekly gain on concerns about tightening crude supplies.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery
CL00,
-1.07% CLU23,
-1.07%
fell 34 cents, or 0.4%, to $82.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
October Brent crude
BRN00,
-0.99% BRNV23,
-0.99% ,
the global benchmark, was off 29 cents, or 0.3%, at $86.52 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
Back on Nymex, September gasoline
RBU23,
-1.71%
dropped 0.9% to $2.939 a gallon, while September heating oil
HOU23,
-0.67%
was off 0.2% at $3.116 a gallon. -
September natural gas
NGU23,
+0.51%
edged up 0.3% to $2.778 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
Oil has rallied this summer as Saudi Arabia in July implemented a voluntary production cut of 1 million barrels a day — a cut that was recently extended through September. Russia has also moved to extend an additional supply cut of 300,000 barrels a day.
But concerns about demand from China are seen as potentially capping the potential for further upside, analysts said.
“While the oil market has a considerable tailwind filling its sails, it still has many uncharted challenges. Specially it’s unclear how much China’s colossal import demand was due to stock-building, which could lead to lower demand in the future,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, in a note.
“And, of course, given their worsening economic situation, no one is sure if Russia will follow through with its production cut pledges,” he wrote.
