Oil fluctuated between gains and losses as investors weighed new investments by Saudi Aramco with concerns that a deepening trade war between China and the United States will impact global demand for crude.
Futures traded little changed in New York after rising as much as 1.3% earlier in the session. U.S. President Donald Trump said planned trade talks with China next month may be called off. Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco announced plans to buy a stake in the refining and chemicals business of India’s Reliance Industries Ltd.
Overall, crude remains down this month as fears the U.S.-China trade spat may expand into a currency war. The International Energy Agency on Friday trimmed its forecasts for oil-demand growth this year and next, and warned that it may lower the estimates further as the trade conflict drags on.
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery gained 8 cents to $54.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 11:15 a.m. The contract advanced 3.7% on Friday, trimming a second weekly loss.
Brent for October settlement fell 2 cents tp $58.51 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. The contract added $1.15 to close at $58.53 on Friday, trimming the weekly loss to 5.4%.
The global benchmark crude traded at a $4.05 premium to WTI for the same month. It narrowed to as little as $3.93 a barrel earlier, the tightest spread since June 2018, after the closure of a refinery operated by Philadelphia Energy Solutions left a surplus of cargoes from the North Sea.
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Trump said earlier this month that new tariffs on Chinese imports will take effect Sept. 1, shattering a truce reached with President Xi Jinping weeks earlier. It unleashed tit-for-tat actions on trade and currency policy that risk accelerating a wider geopolitical fight between the two countries.
Meanwhile, unnamed Saudi Arabian officials said last week the kingdom plans to keep crude exports below 7 million barrels a day in September as it allocates less oil than customers demand. State-run Saudi Aramco will provide customers across all regions with 700,000 barrels a day less than they requested, the officials said.
Saudi Aramco’s move to diversify from Saudi Arabia by buying a stake in Indian refiner Reliance precedes a planned public offering that could be held as early as next year.
“The acquisition demonstrates the Saudis are going to be aggressive for their IPO and will maintain their vested interest in keeping oil prices up by keeping supplies off the market,”said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc.