Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday after falling in the previous session as a U.S. plan to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) provided some support though wider concerns about weaker future demand growth exerted pressure.
Brent crude futures climbed 3 cents to $71.45 a barrel by 0415 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 7 cents at $67.45 a barrel. Both contracts tumbled 6% on Monday to their lowest since Oct. 1 after Israel’s retaliatory strike on Iran at the weekend bypassed Tehran’s oil infrastructure.
With signs that neither country seemed likely to escalate the conflict after the attack, investor concerns about flagging global oil demand growth for this year and next rose to the fore.
“While outlook for the Middle East situation remains alarming, the market is expecting a temporary lull in retaliatory strikes between Israel and Iran,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, president of NS Trading, a unit of Nissan Securities.
“The U.S. plan to refill the SPR provided some support to the market,” he said, but predicted a downward trend ahead as peak winter kerosene demand season in the Northern Hemisphere was still some way off while demand in China remained sluggish.
