Oil gives up earlier gains as Saudi Aramco ups production

London — Oil prices fell on Wednesday, giving up earlier gains, pressured by Saudi Arabia’s plans to boost oil production capacity for the first time in more than a decade and weakened demand due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Brent crude was down 74c or 2% to $36.48 a barrel by 9.30am GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was off 75c or 2.2% at $33.61.

With the collapse of co-ordinated output cuts by Saudi Arabia, Russia and others, the Saudi energy ministry has directed producer Saudi Aramco to raise its output capacity to 13-million barrels per day (bpd) from 12-million.

“Oil’s supply-demand dynamics still point to a bias for weakness, as Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war that threatens to push global markets into oversupplied conditions, at a time when global demand is being eroded by the coronavirus outbreak,” Han Tan, market analyst at FXTM said.

Oil prices had climbed $2 earlier in the session on hopes that spending cuts by North American producers to cope with multi-year low crude prices would lead to a drop in output.

“Any reduction in spending and drilling will take time to show up in actual production figures and is unlikely to mitigate the bearish impact of a huge Saudi output increase, in case the latter does happen,” said oil broker PVM’s Tamas Varga.

Oil prices were also under pressure after US crude oil inventories rose in the most recent week, while petrol and distillate stocks fell, American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed.

Policymakers and central banks have been taking measures to bolster their economies against disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the latest being the Bank of England (BOE), which unexpectedly cut interest rates by half a percent on Wednesday.

“Coronavirus is still spreading globally and no doubt the virus’s spread in major economies such as the US will continue to hurt oil demand,” said Victor Shum, vice-president of energy consulting at IHS Markit.

The coronavirus, which can be transmitted from person to person, originated in China late last year and has spread to more than 80 countries since then. It has infected more than 119,000 people, of whom more than 65,000 have recovered, and killed more than 4,000 globally, according to a tracker by the John Hopkins corona resource centre.

A worker at Equinor’s Martin Linge offshore oil and gas development has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and is being held in isolation, the Norwegian energy firm said, adding that activity on the field will be reduced on Wednesday.

However, China’s independent oil refiners are cranking up production as local governments begin to relax strict measures to contain the coronavirus and fuel demand begins to recover.

As new cases subside, more parts of China, which had been in lockdown, are being allowed to resume work, though travel curbs are still in place in some areas.

Reuters