HOUSTON: After data revealed that refinery output decreased for the sixth consecutive month and that China’s economic growth slowed, oil futures fell on Friday and were on track for a weekly decline of 8%.
By 11:09 a.m. EDT, Brent crude futures were down $1.69, or 2.27 percent, to $72.74 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was down $1.72, or 2.43 percent, to $68.95 a barrel.
Since Opec and the International Energy Agency reduced their forecasts for global oil demand in 2024 and 2025 on Sept. 2, both benchmarks are on track to fall by approximately 8 percent this week, marking their largest weekly decline since then.
In China, the world’s top oil shipper, the economy developed at the slowest speed since mid 2023 in the second from last quarter, however utilization and modern result figures for September beat conjectures.
China’s refinery output fell for the sixth month in a row due to reduced processing and low fuel consumption.
Neil Atkinson, a former head of the IEA’s oil division and independent energy analyst based in Paris, stated, “We cannot ignore the impact of electric vehicles in China.”
“There are different variables impacting everything here, financial shortcoming in China yet in addition the move towards the zap of transport,” Atkinson added.
In August, sales of electric vehicles in China increased by 42 percent to a record high of over one million vehicles.
