US Gulf of Mexico Platforms in Focus

Oil prices fell for a second day on Tuesday as new production facilities returned to the US Gulf following Hurricane Barry over the weekend, as Chinese economic data clouded the outlook for oil prices. the demand for crude.

Brent futures were down 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $ 66.38 per barrel at 00:28 GMT. They dropped 0.4% overnight.

US crude fell 10 cents, or 0.2%, to 59.48 dollars a barrel. The US benchmark dropped by about 1% in the previous session.

Last week's two contracts recorded their strongest weekly gain in three weeks, as US oil stocks declined and diplomatic tensions increased in the Middle East.

However, as producers began Monday to restore some of the production that had been shut down on the Gulf of Mexico platforms, nearly 74% before Hurricane Barry, concerns over oversupply returned to the 'foreground.

And while Chinese data on Monday showed that industrial production and retail data exceeded expectations, the overall figures showed the country's slowest quarterly economic growth in decades.

China's oil output hit a record 13.07 million barrels a day in June, up 7.7% from a year earlier, following the start of two new large refineries , according to official data.

Nevertheless, economic growth of only 6.2% in the second quarter of 2019 – the lowest in 27 years – highlighted the impact of trade tensions with Washington and the possibility that additional incentives are needed to revive the economy. # 39; s economy.

"The biggest downturn in the oil markets is the weakness of China's consumer data," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at Vanguard Markets.

In the United States, there were 1.3 million barrels per day (b / d) of off-line oil production in the US-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico, about 80,000 barrels below Sunday.

The workers also returned to more than 280 production platforms evacuated. Several days may be needed for full production to resume after a storm has left the Gulf of Mexico.