TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil prices were little changed on Friday but set for a slide of about 4% on the week hurt by rising global supply and concerns about future demand.
FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Nick Oxford
Brent crude was down 12 cents, or 0.2%, at $59.50 a barrel, on track for a drop of about 4% for the week.
WTI crude had edged up 3 cents to $54.22 a barrel by 0742 GMT with the U.S. contract was set for a weekly loss of more than 4%.
Worries over global economic growth, along with oil demand, continue to haunt the market as the United States and China struggle to end a 16-month dispute that has hit trade between the world’s top two economies.
“There’s renewed doubts about a U.S.-China trade deal… and at the same time we’ve had inventory lifts quite a lot more than expected at the crude level out of the U.S. this week,” said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research at National Australia Bank.
The market received some respite from a run of poor economic data after an unexpected bounce in a private sector survey of Chinese manufacturing activity on Friday, which contrasted with dour results in an official survey Thursday.
Japanese factory activity, however, sank to more than a three-year low in October, data showed on Friday, in a fresh warning sign for the world’s third-largest economy.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 5.7 million barrels in the week to Oct. 25, dwarfing analyst expectations for an increase of just 494,000 barrels.
A Reuters survey showed that oil prices are likely to remain under pressure this year and next. The poll of 51 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude would average $64.16 a barrel in 2019 and $62.38 next year.
A Reuters survey found output from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) recovered in October from an eight-year low, with a rapid recovery in Saudi Arabian production from September attacks on its oil infrastructure offsetting losses in Ecuador and voluntary curbs under an international supply pact.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude production soared nearly 600,000 barrels per day in August to a record of 12.4 million, buoyed by a 30% increase in Gulf of Mexico output, government data released on Thursday showed.
(Graphic: U.S., Russian, Saudi crude oil production – here)
Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; editing by Jason Neely
