Oil falls as China, winter demand worries offset boost from supply cuts

Oil prices eased on Thursday as worries over demand due to a seasonal slowdown during winter and an uncertain economic outlook for China outweighed expectations of tighter supplies from extended production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell 24 cents to $90.36 a barrel by 0412 GMT, after a nine-session winning streak. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) CLc1 futures fell 29 cents to $87.25 after a seven-session gain.

Both benchmarks had spiked earlier in the week after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s top two oil exporters, extended voluntary supply cuts to the year-end. These were on top of the April cuts agreed by several OPEC+ producers running to the end of 2024.

Mixed data sets from China, with overall exports falling 8.8% in August year-on-year and imports contracting 7.3%, but crude imports surging 30.9% year on year, also impacted prices.

On the supportive front, U.S. crude oil inventories were projected to have fallen by 5.5 million barrels in the week ending Sept. 1, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures. API/S

Official inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) on Thursday.