Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $71.77 a barrel
Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as stronger supply prospects and weak global demand growth outweighed concerns that escalating tensions in the Middle East could impact output from the key exporting region.
Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $71.77 a barrel as of 0335 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for November delivery added 8 cents, or 0.12%, to $68.25.
On Monday, Brent futures closed September down 9%, its third month of declines and biggest monthly decline since November 2022. It plummeted 17% in the third quarter for its biggest quarterly loss in a year. West Texas Intermediate slipped 7% last month and tumbled 16% for the quarter.
There have been a lot of reservations in place for oil prices, as market participants look towards upcoming supply additions from OPEC+ by the end of this year, alongside a still-soft demand outlook from China reflected in the country’s latest PMI numbers, according to Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.
That said, sentiments have been less sensitive to the weaker data, finding room to stabilise on the hopes that recent raft of stimulus may help to jumpstart the economy ahead, he said.
China’s manufacturing activity declined sharply in September as new orders at home and abroad cooled, pulling down factory owners’ confidence to near record lows, a private-sector survey showed on Monday.
Analysts say a raft of stimulus measures over the past week are likely to be enough to bring China’s 2024 growth back to around 5% after below-forecast data in the past several months cast doubts over that target, but will hardly change the long-term outlook.
Alongside the demand concerns, OPEC+, which groups OPEC members and allies such as Russia, is scheduled to raise output by 180,000 barrels per day in December.
