
Crude oil prices rose roughly 1% Tuesday following a speech from U.S. President Trump that offered few new details about Washington’s trade talks with Beijing, Kallanish Energy reports.
Concerns about slower economic growth and oil demand due to the fallout from the 16-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies pressured oil.
Brent crude futures fell 8 cents to settle at $62.10 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude also dropped 8 cents, to settle at $56.80/Bbl.
Prices eased from earlier gains after Trump’s remarks to a lunch gathering of The Economic Club of New York included mixed messages about U.S.-China trade talks and excluded specifics about any progress in negotiations.
The president last Saturday said talks with China were moving along “very nicely,” but the U.S. would make a deal only if it was the right one. He said there had been incorrect reporting about U.S. willingness to lift tariffs.
Prices received earlier support from U.S. data that showed crude inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for WTI, fell by roughly 1.2 million barrels during the week ended Nov. 8, traders told Reuters, citing market intelligence firm Genscape.
Inventories at the hub were expected to draw down after a more than 9,000-barrel leak forced the 590,000-barrel-per-day Keystone crude pipeline to be shut in late October. The line has since been restarted at reduced pressure.
Cushing inventories had grown for five weeks in a row through Nov. 1, according to Energy Information Administration data.
Brent has risen 16% in 2019, supported by a supply-limiting pact by Opec+, which includes most Opec members, along with 10 non-Opec producers led by Russia, The producers meet on Dec. 5-6 to decide whether to extend the deal to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day.
Oman, one of the outside producers working with Opec, said Monday Opec+ would probably extend the agreement, but was unlikely to increase the size of the supply cut.
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