NEW YORK: Oil prices eased about 1% to a one-week low on Monday as Hurricane Beryl shut US refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico, and on hopes a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza could reduce worries about global crude supply disruptions.
Brent futures fell 75 cents, or 0.9%, to $85.79 a barrel by 11:46 a.m. EDT (1546 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 84 cents, or 1.0%, to $82.32.
Hurricane Beryl lashed Texas with strong winds and heavy rain as it churned inland. Oil ports closed, hundreds of flights were canceled and nearly 2 million homes and businesses lost power. Texas produces the most oil and natural gas of any US state. “While this puts some offshore oil and gas production at risk, the concern when the storm makes landfall is the potential impact it could have on refinery infrastructure,” ING analysts led by Warren Patterson said in a note. In the Middle East, talks over a US ceasefire plan to end the nine-month-old war in Gaza are under way and being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
If anything concrete comes from the ceasefire talks, it will remove some of geopolitical bid from the market for now, said IG analyst Tony Sycamore. Elsewhere, investors were watching for how elections in the UK, France and Iran over the past week would affect geopolitics and energy policies.
The French left said it wanted to run the government but conceded talks would be tough and take time, after Sunday’s election thwarted the far right’s quest for power and delivered a hung parliament. In the US, President Joe Biden said he would not abandon his re-election campaign as he sought to stave off a possible revolt from fellow Democrats who worry the party could lose the White House and Congress in the Nov. 5 US election.
In India, the world’s third biggest oil consumer, fuel consumption rose by 2.6% year-on-year to 19.99 million metric tons in June from a year earlier.
In Germany, exports fell more than expected in May due to weak demand from China, the US and European countries. In Kazakhstan, the energy ministry said it will compensate for oil output exceeding its OPEC+ quota in the first half of this year by September 2025. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) along with its allies, a group known as OPEC+, has already extended most of its oil output cuts into 2025.
Those output cuts have led analysts to forecast supply deficits in the third quarter as transportation and demand for air-conditioning during the summer eat into fuel stockpiles.