Prices of benchmark oil grades are down weakly on Friday morning after a sharp decline the previous day.
The price of October Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange is at $86.25 a barrel by 8:10 a.m. Q4, down 15 cents (0.17%) from the previous session’s close. On Thursday, these contracts fell in price by $1.15 (1.3%) – to $86.24 per barrel.
Quotes of futures for WTI crude oil for September at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by the specified time decreased by 14 cents (0.17%) and amounted to $82.68 per barrel. At the end of the last session they fell by $1.58 (1.9%) – to $82.82 per barrel.
Earlier this week, both grades hit multi-month highs. Despite declines the day before, they may end in the plus side for the seventh straight week on expectations of fuel shortages in the global market.
“The oil market has been overbought after rallying for weeks, but OPEC+ production cuts and improving demand outlook remain positive factors,” said CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng.
Meanwhile, OPEC left in force its previous forecast, which envisioned growth in global oil demand in 2023 by 2.44 million bpd to 102.01 million bpd. Next year, it will increase by another 2.25 million bpd to 104.25 million bpd, the organization expects.
“Sustained global economic growth amid continued improvements in China is projected to boost oil consumption in 2024,” OPEC said.
