Crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia Tuesday amid lingering global growth concerns as market participants look forward to US inventory data to be released Wednesday to provide price direction for this week. At 10:58 am in Singapore (0258 GMT), ICE Brent December futures were down 34 cents/b (0.57%) from Monday’s settle at $59.01/b, while the NYMEX November light sweet crude futures contract was 29 cents/b (0.54%) lower at $53.30/b.
“Subdued global economic momentum has afflicted strong bearish bias on oil prices as traders deliberate demand-side weaknesses in the current term,” Phillip Futures’ investment analyst Benjamin Lu said. According to media reports, the US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, on Monday said that a new round of tariffs for $156 billion worth of Chinese goods is set to kick in on December 15 if China does not seal the limited deal tentatively struck with Donald Trump last week.
“This (Mnuchin’s statement) saw Brent prices pull back most of the gains achieved on Friday following reports of the agreement,” ANZ analysts said in a note Monday. The US and China reached a partial agreement Friday that covers agricultural purchases, financial services, currencies and intellectual properties. Elsewhere, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Monday the country expects to produce around 9.86 million b/d of oil in October and November, Russia’s Prime news agency reported. Attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq processing facility and Khurais field caused crude output to plummet to 8.45 million b/d in September, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey. Abdulaziz also said that oil exports are currently around 6.9 million-7 million b/d and expects outflows to be around that level until the end of the year.