(Reuters) In early Asian trading, oil prices continued to fall, extending a two-week losing streak. Customers around the world said they were planning to release petroleum from strategic inventories and Chinese lockdowns were still in place.
At 2202 GMT, Brent oil declined 38 cents to $102.40 a barrel, while US crude slipped 16 cents to $98.18. Brent crude oil fell 1.5 percent last week, while West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 1% in the United States.The benchmarks have been at their most volatile level since June 2020 for many weeks.
The market has been closely following events in China, where authorities have confined Shanghai, a metropolis of 26 million people, to a “zero tolerance” policy for COVID-19. China is the world’s largest importer of oil.
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) member states will release 60 million barrels over the next six months, with the US matching that amount as part of the 180 million barrel release announced in March. Continue reading
The publication could also stop producers, like OPEC and US shale producers, from increasing production even if prices were around $100 a barrel, ANZ Research said in a report.
However, the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries hasn’t shown any sign of raising its production goals above the 400,000 barrels per day that were added each month as part of the reinstatement of supply caps.
The IEA release would provide around 2 million barrels per day of supply for the next two months, plus an additional 1 million barrels per day from the United States for the next four months. It’s not clear if this will make up for the lack of Russian oil after that country invaded Ukraine.
Russia’s oil and gas condensate output declined to 10.52 million barrels per day (BPD) in April from an average of 11.01 million BPD in March.
