WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil is little changed on Monday amid geopolitical tensions in Europe and the Middle East along with lingering oversupply concerns.
WTI Crude Oil for October delivery was last seen trading up by $0.05 (or 0.08%) at $62.73 per barrel.
Following years of production cuts to support the oil market, the OPEC+ alliance changed their policy this April to gradually increase output.
Continuing the policy, eight OPEC+ member nations agreed on September 7 to boost production by 137,000 barrels per day beginning in October.
Some member countries have been stressing for more output quotas. In a related development, Kuwait's production capacity stands at 3.2 million barrels per day.
Iraq is slated to resume oil exports from the Kurdish region to a pipeline to Turkey. This was earlier halted for around two years due to disputes in payment. Analysts say this resumption of crude exports could add at least 230,000 bpd of fresh oil supplies to global markets.
The International Energy Agency projected the global consumption to grow by 740,000 bpd this year and by an additional 700,000 bpd next year.
In contrast, OPEC projected demand to grow by 1.3 million bpd in 2025 with an additional 1.4 million bpd in 2026.
In Europe, Russian military jets violated Estonia's airspace for 12 minutes on Friday and hovered in the neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea. This follows a similar violation earlier in Poland.
The unified European Union is planning a solid defense against Russian incursions. On Friday, the EU unveiled its 19th sanctions package against Russia, including a ban on Liquefied Natural Gas imports and restrictions on 118 additional shadow vessels.
US President Donald Trump had called for the EU to impose sanctions against countries buying oil from Russia and asked the NATO nations to stop buying Russian oil, as he believes this would force Russia to come to the negotiating table.
In this context, Trump even pointed out that he had imposed a 'penalty tariff' of 25% on India - a major oil purchaser of Russia - despite India and the US sharing smooth bilateral ties.
Tensions caused by the attacks on Doha, Qatar by Israeli Defense Forces on September 9 targeting Hamas leaders still simmer.
Qatar has reportedly asked for an apology from Israel for inadvertently killing a Qatari officer. However, brushing aside the warning, Israel warned of more such attacks if Hamas leaders are not expelled from Qatar.
The mediatory efforts that Qatar undertook to secure peace between Israel and Palestine is now in jeopardy.
China is continuing to stockpile crude and thereby soaking some of the excess supply.
According to the latest EIA data, US net crude imports fell steeply by 3.1 million bpd to just 415,000 bpd, the lowest on record since 2001, as exports surged to 5.3 million bpd, near a two-year high.
The conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have provided support to oil prices, which has been offset by oversupply worries.
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