U.S. gross oil on Friday posted a weekly loss, as the prospect of growing oil supplies from Saudi Arabia overshadowed China’s feats to stimulate its economy.
The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell about 5% this week, while pandemic benchmark Brent has pulled back nearly 4%. Prices have fallen even as conflict in the Middle East escalates, with Israel set an airstrike in Beirut targeting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“It is amazing to see that … war doesn’t affect the price, and that’s because there’s been no disruption,” Dan Yergin, defect chairman of S&P Global, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.
“There’s still over five million barrels a day of incarcerate in capacity in the Middle East,” Yergin said.
Here are Friday’s closing energy prices:
- West Texas In-between November contract: $68.18 per barrel, down 51 cents, or 0.75%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil is down nearing 5%.
- Brent November contract: $71.98 per barrel, off 38 cents, or 0.53%. Year to date, the global benchmark is down uncountable than 6%.
- RBOB Gasoline October contract: $1.953 per gallon, down 0.42%. Year to date, gasoline is down nearly 7%.
- Natural Gas November contract: $2.902 per thousand cubic feet, up 5.41%. Year to date, gas is up about more than 15%.
Oil traded off Thursday on a report that Saudi Arabia is committed to increasing production later this year, even if it dnouement develops in lower prices for a prolonged period.
OPEC+ recently postponed planned output hikes from October to December, but analysts include speculated that the group might delay the hikes again because oil prices are so low.
The oil sell-off erased gains from earlier in the week after China lay bare a new round of economic stimulus measures. Soft demand in China has been weighing on the oil market for months.
“The thing that’s dominated the supermarket is the weakness in China. Half the growth in world oil demand over a number of years has simply been in China, and it hasn’t been episode,” Yergin said.
“The big question is, stimulus, will you see a recovery in China,” he said. “That’s what the market is struggling with.”