Markets > Commodities

Oil prices fall as demand concerns weigh

Xinhua News,NEW YORK
2020-02-08 05:00

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NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices declined on Friday as concerns over weakening demand for the energy persist and weigh on the market.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery settled 63 cents lower at 50.32 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery decreased 46 cents to close at 54.47 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The oil market has been caught between fears of weak demand coupled with a high supply surplus on the one hand, and possible (voluntary) production cuts by OPEC+ and (involuntary) outages on the other, analysts at Commerzbank Research said in a note on Friday.

Traders eyed on possible production cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+.

"A possible decision by OPEC ministers next week to cut production more sharply should at least protect the oil price from any further slump," said Eugen Weinberg, energy expert at Commerzbank Research.

In December, the OPEC+ group agreed to deepen production cuts by an additional 500,000 barrels a day, bringing the total cuts to 1.7 million barrels daily.

The OPEC, Russia and other producers have been largely limiting oil output in recent years in order to boost prices.
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