HOUSTON: Oil prices tumbled nearly five per cent to a near two-week low on Tuesday due to a weaker demand outlook and after a media report said Israel would not strike Iranian nuclear and oil sites, easing fears of a supply disruption.

Brent crude futures were down $3.54, or 4.57pc, to $73.92 a barrel at 10:35am CDT (1535 GMT). West Texas Intermediate futures lost $3.55, or 4.81pc, hitting $70.28 a barrel.

Both benchmarks had earlier fallen by $4, reaching their lowest since the beginning of October, after settling about 2pc lower on Monday.

“We’re seeing an unw­inding of the war premi­um we built up last week,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. “What we’re seeing, it’s not really about supply, it’s about the risk to supply and demand.” Brent and WTI are down about $5 so far this week, nearly wiping out cumulative gains made after investors became concerned Israel could strike Iran’s oil facilities in retaliation for Tehran’s Oct 1 missile attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United States that Israel was willing to strike Iranian military targets and not nuclear or oil ones, the Washington Post reported late on Monday.

Both the Organisation of the Petroleum Expor­ting Countries and the Int­ernational Energy Agency this week cut their forecasts for global oil demand growth in 2024, with China accounting for the bulk of the downgrades.

Opec has projected a much stronger expansion of global demand for the year than the IEA. But its “run of lower adjustments is something of an admission of wishful thinking,” said John Evans at oil broker PVM.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024