Oil prices ease on potential supply hikes; Trump-Putin eyed

Reuters  |  SEOUL 

By Jane Chung

Brent crude futures were down 48 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $74.85 a barrel at 0302 GMT.

U.S. Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $70.62 a barrel.

Supply outages in and strike action in and pushed prices higher late last week, although prices still ended down for a second straight week.

"Crude fell as fears of supply disruptions eased. that Libya's had restarted output from a major ignited the selloff earlier in the week," said in a note.

The market focus shifted towards possible supply increases, even as a Norwegian union for workers on offshore stepped up a six-day strike.

"There are mixed supply signals and I think the (Brent) price is likely to be in the low-to-mid $70s range," said Kim Kwang-rae, at in Seoul.

"A summit between U.S. Trump and Russian Putin is also being watched in case they say something about oil," Kim said.

U.S. and Russian President are set to hold their first stand-alone meeting in on Monday. Trump has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with higher oil prices, asking OPEC to lower prices.

and other major may increase output further should supply shortages hit the global oil market, Russian said on Friday.

Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at OANDA, said U.S.-trade tensions "should subside this week and could be a possible plus for oil prices," but a possible sale of U.S. would hurt prices.

"With the actively considering tapping into the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it could weigh negatively," Innes said.

The holds a reserve of about 660 million barrels, and the was considering drawing on the country's oil reserve, which would increase supply, according to a report.

Meanwhile, the number of rigs drilling in the was unchanged at 863 in the week to July 13 as the rate of the growth slowed amid a fall in crude prices.

(Reporting By Jane Chung; editing by Richard Pullin)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, July 16 2018. 09:32 IST