Oil On The Back Foot as Ukraine-Russia and Demand Slow Down

West Texas Intermediate crude headed for a weekly loss amid concerns that global oil demand is slowing. Brent slipped in London.

WTI futures were little changed after paring an advance of as much as 0.9 percent in New York. The grade has lost 0.4 percent this week, while Brent has retreated 2.8 percent in the same period. The International Energy Agency cut world oil demand forecasts for this year and 2015 yesterday.

“The latest price slide was due first and foremost to a gloomier demand outlook,” Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in a report. “It would still be premature to talk of a trend reversal” after the sell-off, he said.

WTI for October delivery rose 8 cents to $92.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 2:01 p.m. London time. It had advanced as much as 84 cents to $93.67 a barrel. The volume of all futures traded was about 9 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day.

Brent for October settlement slipped 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $98 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of as little as $4.85 to WTI on ICE, the least since July 24.

via Bloomberg

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