WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil prices moved lower again on Thursday, extending their losses from yesterday amid increasing oversupply concerns due to OPEC+ alliance's plans to decide on an output hike at their upcoming meeting.
WTI Crude Oil for October delivery was last seen trading down by $0.63 (or 0.98%) at $63.34 per barrel.
Since April 2025, OPEC+ has been determined to reclaim their market share. The cartel has already agreed on raising output targets by about 2.2 million barrels per day in addition to a 300,000 bpd quota increase for the UAE.
Concerns have risen as the group is reportedly planning to consider further production hike for October month in their upcoming Sunday meeting.
Demand forecasts have been divergent, with OPEC projecting 1.29 million bpd for this year whereas the IEA projected 700,000 bpd, attributing the low demand to global energy transition and imbalance in refining capacity in many countries.
Reportedly, in Nigeria (an OPEC member), the gasoline unit at the 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery may be shut for 2-3 months for repair works.
In the US, data released by the American Petroleum Institute revealed that crude oil inventories rose by 0.62 million barrels for the week ending August 29 after a 0.97 million-barrel decline in the previous week.
Further, data released by the Energy Information Administration today revealed that for the week ending August 29, crude oil inventories in the US increased by 2.42 million barrels; stocks of gasoline decreased by3,795,000 barrels; and distillate stocks increased by 1,681,000 barrels.
Supply side concerns prevail with Russia on the verge of facing heavy sanctions on its oil exports by the US as it has ignored repeated calls to end its war with Ukraine. The US has already punished India - a major Russian oil buyer - with 'penalty tariffs' of 25%.
Macroeconomic data coming from the US today showed that new jobless claims rose by 8,000 from the previous week, supporting rate cut expectations.
In the Middle East, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, as an indirect warning to the West, declared that the country was not afraid of war after talks on Iran's nuclear programme failed to deliver a breakthrough. Any escalation of tensions could lead to an open conflict between the US and Iran.
On the trade front, while Canada, India, and Japan are in serious talks with the US to seal a trade deal, new uncertainty has arisen with last Friday's appeals court ruling in the US which has termed 'tariff imposition' as illegal. The US administration is set to battle the verdict in the US Supreme Court.
Oil being a dollar-denominated commodity, its price could be impacted in the near-term by the decision of the US Federal Reserve on interest rate at their upcoming meeting on September 16-17.
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