Oil futures fell more than $1 early on Monday as protests in top importer China over strict COVID-19 curbs fuelled demand worries, while investors remained cautious ahead of an agreement on a Western price cap on Russian oil and an OPEC+ meeting.<\/p>\n
Brent crude dropped $1.01, or 1.2 per cent, to trade at $82.62 a barrel at 0110 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $1.09, or 1.4 per cent, to $75.19.<\/p>\n
Both benchmarks, which hit 10-month lows last week, have posted three consecutive weekly declines. Brent ended the latest week down 4.6 per cent, while WTI fell 4.7 per cent.<\/p>\n
“On top of growing concerns about weaker fuel demand in China due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, political uncertainty, caused by rare protests over the government’s stringent COVID restrictions in Shanghai, prompted selling,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities.<\/p>\n
WTI’s trading range is expected to fall to $70-$75, he said, adding the market could stay volatile depending on the outcome of the OPEC+ meeting and the price cap on Russian oil.<\/p>\n
China, the world’s top oil importer, has stuck with President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy even as much of the world has lifted most restrictions.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China’s strict COVID restrictions flared for a third day and spread to several cities in the wake of a deadly fire in the country’s far west.<\/p>\n
The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since Xi assumed power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his zero-COVID policy nearly three years into the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Group of Seven(G7) and European Union diplomats have been discussing a price cap on Russian oil of between $65 and $70 a barrel, with the aim of limiting revenue to fund Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine without disrupting global oil markets.<\/p>\n
But a meeting of EU government representatives, scheduled for Nov. 25 evening to discuss the issue, was cancelled, EU diplomats said. The price cap is due to come into effect on Dec. 5 when an EU ban on Russian crude kicks off.<\/p>\n
Investors are also focusing on the next meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, on Dec. 4.<\/p>\n
In October, OPEC+ agreed to reduce its output target by 2 million barrels per day through 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil futures fell more than $1 early on Monday as protests in top importer China over strict COVID-19 curbs fuelled demand worries, while investors remained cautious ahead of an agreement on a Western price cap on Russian oil and an OPEC+ meeting. Brent crude dropped $1.01, or 1.2 per cent, to trade at $82.62 a barrel at 0110 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid $1.09, or 1.4 per cent, to $75.19. Both benchmarks, which hit 10-month lows last week, have posted three consecutive weekly declines. Brent ended the latest week down 4.6 per cent, while WTI fell 4.7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oil-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}