Oil stable on demand woes
Sales of petrol fell by 11% to 0.62 million tons, diesel demand dropped by 15% to 0.52 million tons, while sales of furnace oil reduced by 3% to 0.12 million tons in December, as compared to the same month of the previous year. photo: file
Oil prices were little changed in choppy trading on Tuesday as investors debated OPEC+ plans to cut more production and weak economic data from the US and China that could hurt oil demand.
Brent crude futures were down 30 cents to $84.63 a barrel by 1505 GMT. US WTI crude futures traded at $80.19 a barrel, down 23 cents. Both benchmarks jumped by more than 6% on Monday after OPEC+ rocked markets with an announcement of voluntary production cuts of 1.66 million barrels per day (bpd) from May.
Goldman Sachs lifted its forecast for Brent to $95 a barrel by the end of this year, and to $100 for 2024.
However, a slump in US manufacturing activity in March to its lowest level in nearly three years, and weak manufacturing activity in China last month raised demand concerns.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2023.
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