LONDON: Oil prices fell on Tuesday to below $60 a barrel, the lowest since May this year, as prospects for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal appeared to strengthen, raising expectations of a potential easing of sanctions.

Brent crude futures fell 81 cents, or around 1.3 per cent, to $59.75 a barrel at 1214 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $55.98 a barrel, down 84 cents, or nearly 1.5pc.

“Brent has dropped this morning to below $60 per barrel for the first time in months, as the market assesses a potential peace deal resulting in additional Russian volumes becoming available and oversupplying the market further,” said Rystad analyst Janiv Shah.

Brent will make a fresh year-to-date low, but will not break below $55 a barrel before the year is out,” said PVM Oil Associates analyst John Evans. Meanwhile, Barclays analysts expect Brent to average $65/bbl in 2026, slightly ahead of the forward curve, due to the expected 1.9m bpd surplus that they see as being priced into the market already.

Adding to the pressure, soft Chinese economic data released on Monday further fuelled concerns that global demand may not be strong enough to absorb recent supply growth, said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore in a note. China’s factory output growth slowed to a 15-month low, official data showed.

Retail sales also grew at their slowest pace since December 2022, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2025