By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices continued to fall on Monday as the threat of a supply disruption from a U.S. storm eased and after China’s stimulus package disappointed investors looking for higher fuel demand from the world’s second largest oil consumer.
Brent crude futures fell 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.56 a barrel by 0340 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $70 a barrel. , down 38 cents, or 0.5%.
Both benchmarks fell more than 2% last Friday.
Beijing’s recovery plan announced Friday at the National People’s Congress (NPC) standing committee meeting failed to meet market expectations, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note. adding that its vague forward guidance suggested only modest stimulus measures in favor of housing and consumption.
ANZ analysts said the lack of direct fiscal stimulus meant Chinese policymakers were leaving room to assess the impact of policies the next US administration would introduce.
“The market will now focus on the Politburo meeting and the Central Economic Work Conference in December, where we expect more counter-cyclical consumer-friendly measures to be announced,” they added in a note.
China’s oil consumption, driving global demand growth for years, barely increased in 2024 as its economic growth slowed, gasoline consumption declined with the rapid growth of electric vehicles and gas Liquefied natural gas has replaced diesel as a truck fuel.
Oil prices also fell after concerns about supply disruption caused by Storm Rafael in the US Gulf of Mexico eased.
More than a quarter of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil production and 16% of natural gas production remained offline Sunday, according to the offshore energy regulator.
Shell and Chevron each announced Sunday that they would begin redeploying staff to their Gulf of Mexico platforms to resume operations.
Looking ahead, uncertainty over policies pursued by US President-elect Donald Trump has clouded the global economic outlook, even as expectations that he could tighten sanctions on OPEC producers Iran and the Venezuela and reducing oil supplies to global markets, in part, caused oil prices to rise more than 1% last time. week.
Oil markets are also supported by firm demand from U.S. refiners who are expected to operate their plants at more than 90% of their crude processing capacity with low inventories and growing demand for gasoline and diesel, executives said and industry experts.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; editing by Sonali Paul)
