Oil falls 1% on rising supply and renewed US-China trade worries

New York — Oil prices fell about 1% on Wednesday as a surprise increase in US crude stockpiles and growing oil cartel Opec production fed worries that global supplies could swell, while investors continued to worry that trade tensions could hit energy demand.

Brent crude futures fell $1.13 to $73.08 a barrel, a 1.5% loss, by 2.58pm GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 67c to $68.09 a barrel, a 1% loss. US crude inventories rose 3.8-million barrels in the week to July 27 as imports jumped, the US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a decrease of 2.8-million barrels.

Still, oil futures pared losses after the data was released, which also showed growing US demand.

“Demand for crude oil from refiners is very high, and petrol demand remains sky-high as well,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital Management in New York. “US oil production growth appears to have stalled out and actually declined a fair amount on the week.”

Refinery crude runs rose by 195,000 barrels per day (bpd), while petrol stocks declined 2.5-million barrels, EIA data showed. On Tuesday, EIA reported that US crude production fell 30,000 bpd to 10.44-million bpd in May.

Oil prices are also being pressured by concern that global trade tensions could crimp economic growth.

“Ratcheting up of trade tensions between the US and China has brought oil prices under significant selling pressure,” said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy. “Market participants are awaiting additional tariffs by the US on the next tranche of imported goods from China.”

Last month, Brent fell more than 6% and US crude slumped about 7%, the biggest monthly declines for both benchmarks since July 2016.

On Wednesday, a Kuwaiti official said the country increased production in July by 100,000 bpd from June’s average. On Monday, a Reuters survey found that Opec production reached a 2018 high in July. Opec, plus Russia and other allies, decided in June to ease supply cuts in place since 2017.

Oil prices also were pressured by signs that a supply disruption in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea could be resolved. Yemen’s Houthi group said it was ready to halt attacks in the Red Sea to support peace efforts. Saudi Arabia had suspended oil shipments through the strait last week after attacks on tankers.

Reuters