Oil prices extended losses on Monday on expectations for higher OPEC+ production starting in October and as signs of sluggish demand in China and the U.S., the world’s two largest oil consumers, raised concerns about future consumption growth.
Brent crude futures fell 61 cents, or 0.8%, to $76.32 a barrel by 0450 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 52 cents, or 0.7%, to $73.03 a barrel.
The losses followed a 0.3% decline for Brent last week and a 1.7% drop for WTI. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, is set to proceed with a planned oil output hike from October, six sources from the producer group told Reuters.
Eight OPEC+ members are scheduled to boost output by 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October, as part of a plan to begin unwinding their most recent layer of output cuts of 2.2 million bpd while keeping other cuts in place until end-2025.
“There are concerns that OPEC will go ahead and increase output from October,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said. “However, I think that outcome is price dependent in that it happens if the WTI price is closer to $80 than $70.”
