RIYADH: Oil prices nudged lower on Wednesday, taking a breather after a strong rally this week spurred by the loss of a quarter of Mexico’s production and signs that China, the world's biggest importer, has curbed a recent coronavirus outbreak.
Brent crude futures dropped 9 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $70.96 a barrel by 0639 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $67.35.
Both benchmark contracts rose by about 8% over the previous two days, erasing most of the slump from a seven-day losing streak.
Also supporting oil prices was a fire on an oil platform off Mexico on Sunday that killed five workers and took 421,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production — about a quarter of the country’s overall output — off line. The company said on Monday that the fire caused the shutdown of 125 wells in the field, which will reduce Mexico’s daily output of oil equivalents by 421,000 bpd.
The US Department of Energy said on Monday it would sell up to 20 million barrels of crude from the emergency oil reserve to comply with legislation, with deliveries to take place between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15.
Meanwhile, the value of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports in June increased 123 percent to SR61.5 billion ($16.4 billion) from a year earlier.
Indian imports
India’s crude imports in July fell 12.5 percent month-on-month to 3.4 million bpd, but rose 12.8 percent year-on-year, as refiners shut units for maintenance and cut crude imports anticipating lower fuel demand during the monsoon season. Government data released on Tuesday showed India’s oil imports declined to about 15.02 million tons, about 3.5 million bpd.
Canadian crude
The share of Canadian oil in India’s overall imports in July rose to a record 6.3 percent, partly replacing some Latin American oil, data from industry sources showed on Tuesday. India shipped in about 3.4 million barrels per day of oil in July, the lowest in a year, the data showed.
