Crude-oil futures moved in a narrow price range in Friday as some market participants think oil may be oversold.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October CLV4, -0.44% traded at $93.82 a barrel, down 14 cents in the Globex electronic session.
October Brent crude LCOV4, -0.19% on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 14 cents to $102.49 a barrel.
Oil had gained overnight and both Nymex WTI and Brent crude have settled higher for two consecutive trading sessions.
“There’s not necessarily specific bullish news to argue that the market has become tighter but there has been at least some talk that OPEC might trim output to provide support if the market were to extend the downtrend,” Citi Futures analyst Tim Evans said.
But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may not need to trim output despite higher Libyan exports as oil demand will grow for the rest of this year, he said.
Meanwhile, China’s actual oil demand continued to drop in July and was the weakest since January. Weak demand is across all petroleum products including diesel and gasoline, Citi Research analyst Ivan Szpakowski said.
Asian fuel demand in important importers of crude, gasoline and diesel including Indonesia, India and China has fallen well below expectations this summer, executives said at a Platts forum in Singapore.
Wider financial markets are waiting for a weekend meeting of the world’s main central bankers at Jackson Hole — especially U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s comments on its monetary policy.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for September RBU4, +0.04% — the benchmark gasoline contract — rose 1 cent to $2.754 a gallon while September heating oil HOU4, -0.07% held steady at $2.837 a gallon.
ICE gasoil for September changed hands at $861.00 a metric ton, up $1.75 from Thursday’s settlement.
