Asian trading hours Money show crude-oil futures subdued with Brent over Nymex WTI remained under $4 per barrel. This is the situation after last week’s sharp narrowing with the soft demand of oil in the Pacific.
The oil prices ended last week on mixed notes which lead to the spread narrowing of Brent-WTI on Friday to $3.46 a barrel. Records show that Brent crude had 1.41% losses which continuously have been low 5 days straight of the entire week. On the other hand, Nymex WTI enjoyed gains of 2.06% last week and is remained up for two consecutive weeks.
Singapore’s Philip Futures Howie Lee said that this week, oil markets will be focusing on the China and U.S. manufacturing data as this are two of the largest oil consumers in the world.
Because of the low demand of crude oil from Asian countries, Brent stayed under pressure last week which lead to the excess of oil cargos in the Atlantic.
It would help to use up enough supply of crude oil in the Atlantic basin if there will be an increase in its demand in the Pacific but this is quite impossible which Barclay’s analyst Miswin Mahesh tried to point on in a weekly report.
With the soft demand of crude oil in Asia, the only thing that oil companies can do right now is to try to adjust in order to strike a balance in the market.