Oil prices rise on Friday morning, but end in the negative for the second week in a row on signals of weak demand in China and expectations of further tightening of monetary policy in the United States.
Traders’ attention on Friday is focused on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at an economic symposium in Jackson Hole.
It is believed that he will outline in his speech what factors the Fed will consider when deciding when to finalize the rise in the benchmark interest rate and when it is time to start lowering it.
October Brent crude futures on the London-based ICE Futures exchange at 8:15 a.m. Q4 on Friday stand at $83.63 per barrel, up $0.27 (0.32%) from the previous session’s closing price. On Thursday, these contracts rose $0.15 (0.2%) to $83.36 per barrel.
The price of WTI oil futures for October at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by $0.28 (0.35%) to $79.33 per barrel. At the end of previous trading, the cost of these contracts rose by $0.16 (0.2%), to $79.05 per barrel.
Since the beginning of this week, Brent has fallen in price by 1.4%, WTI – by 2.4%.
Citigroup analyst Ed Morse said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that key OPEC members may have to further reduce oil production as members of the organization, who have struggled with production in recent years, have begun to ramp it up.
Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Libya and Venezuela will increase production by a total of 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year and at least the same amount next year, Citi said. This will be enough to meet oil demand, Morse noted.
As a result, Saudi Arabia and a number of other states will have to further reduce production, which could become a serious problem for them, the expert said.
