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By Jeslyn Lerh
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Friday on concerns about demand growth in 2025, especially in top crude importer China, putting global oil benchmarks on track to end the decline. week with a drop of almost 3%.
Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell 33 cents, or 0.45%, to $72.55 a barrel by 0730 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 32 cents, or 0.46%, to $69.06 a barrel.
Chinese state refiner Sinopec said in its annual energy outlook released Thursday that China’s crude oil imports could peak as early as 2025 and the country’s oil consumption would peak in 2027 as demand weakens. diesel and gasoline.
“Benchmark crude oil prices are in a prolonged consolidation phase as the market approaches the end of the year weighed down by uncertainty in oil demand growth,” said Emril Jamil, senior research specialist at LSEG. .
He added that OPEC+ would require supply discipline to boost prices and calm market jitters over continued revisions to its demand growth outlook. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively called OPEC+, recently cut its growth forecast for global oil demand in 2024 for the fifth consecutive month.
Meanwhile, the dollar’s rise to a two-year high also weighed on oil prices after the Federal Reserve signaled it would be cautious about cutting interest rates in 2025.
A stronger dollar makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies, while a slower pace of rate cuts could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.
JPMorgan forecasts the oil market will move from balance in 2024 to a surplus of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2025, as the bank forecasts non-OPEC+ supply to increase by 1.8 million bpd in 2025 and that OPEC production will remain at current levels.
In a move that could reduce supply, G7 countries are considering ways to adjust the price cap on Russian oil, such as through an outright ban or lowering the price threshold, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Russia has circumvented the $60 per barrel limit imposed in 2022 using its “shadow fleet” of ships, on which the EU and Britain have imposed new sanctions in recent days.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe in Beijing and Jeslyn Lerh in Singapore; Editing by Sonali Paul and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
