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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Tuesday, with US crude futures falling to their lowest level in eight months, a day after Washington issued a penalty waiver to major Iranian oil buyers. that Iran had declared to be able to sell a lot of oil that one must sell.
FILE PHOTO: An oil rig is seen in the central Mediterranean Sea on October 7, 2018. REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis / File Photo
The Brent LCOc1 crude futures price fell by $ 1.04 to $ 72.13 per barrel, a loss of 1.42%. The global benchmark reached a low of $ 71.18 a barrel, its lowest level since August 16th.
CLC1 futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude in the United States fell 89 cents, or 1.41%, to $ 62.21 a barrel. The lowest was $ 61.31 per barrel, the lowest since March 16.
Iran has said it has so far managed to sell as much oil as it needs and has urged European countries opposed to US sanctions to do more to protect Iran.
The United States reinstated Monday sanctions against the Iranian oil, banking and transport sectors and threatened to take further action. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Washington aims to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero, but 180-day exemptions have been granted to eight importers: China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece , Taiwan and Turkey.
Trade data show that this group absorbs up to three quarters of Iran's oil exports by sea, which means that the Islamic Republic will still be allowed to export oil for the time being.
According to industry estimates, Iranian oil exports have dropped 40% to 60% since Trump announced in May that it was going to reimpose the sanctions. Exemptions could, however, allow a further increase in exports after November.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country, one of Iran's biggest oil importers, would not abide by the sanctions, which aimed to "unbalance the world".
"Even though the Iranian sanctions should always be seen as a latent bullish consideration that can limit many further slippages, it seems that the Iranian factor is not able to drive prices up without major aid from the government. a renewed reinforcement of equities, sustainability weakening the US dollar or significant reduction in OPEC production, "said Jim Ritterbusch, chairman of Ritterbusch & Associates, in a note.
Concerns about oil demand weighed on prices. The trade dispute between the United States and China threatens the growth of the world's two largest economies and the weakness of the currency weighs on the Asian economies.
On the supply side, crude oil production in the United States is expected to average 12.06 million barrels per day in 2019, exceeding the threshold of 12 million barrels earlier than expected due 39, increase in national production of shale, said Tuesday the US Energy Information Administration.
Market participants were waiting for industry data on US crude inventories to be released at 4:30 pm. IS. Official government data will be released on Wednesday.
The production of the world's top three producers is on the rise. Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia produced for the first time in October more than 33 million barrels a day, enough to cover more than one third of world crude oil consumption of nearly 100 million barrels a day.
As the leading exporter of crude oil, Saudi Arabia reduced the December price of its Arab Light grade for Asian customers.
Hedge fund managers were net sellers of oil futures and options over the past week.
Morgan Stanley on Tuesday lowered its price forecast for Brent, saying the global benchmark would remain at $ 77.5 a barrel until mid-2019.
Report by Stephanie Kelly in New York, Shadia Nasralla in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Edited by David Gregorio, Susan Thomas and Chizu Nomiyama
