Oil prices declined following a rise in US crude stocks, despite confirmation that the US and China agreed to hold talks in October 2019 to settle trade differences.
Brent crude slipped $0.17 to $60.53 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped $0.25 to trade at $56.01 per barrel, reported Reuters.
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Both the oil benchmarks rebounded nearly 1% after the US and Chinese officials announced that they will hold ministerial-level trade talks in Washington early in October 2019.
China’s commerce ministry also confirmed the development and said in a statement that both the sides agreed to work together and ‘take practical actions to create good conditions for consultations’.
However, the oil prices slipped after the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed an increase in US crude inventories last week, against analysts’ expectations. Crude stocks jumped by 401,000 barrels in the week ended 30 August to 429.1 million barrels. Analysts estimate a drop of 2.5 million barrels.
CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy was quoted by Reuters as saying: “The overall picture still hasn’t changed. We haven’t made any steps to a real agreement.”
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By GlobalDataOn the other hand, BP also predicts the growth in oil demand to slow down in 2019, as consumption contracts. BP chief financial officer Brian Gilvary told Reuters that global oil demand is estimated to increase by less than one million barrels per day in 2019.
