Blue coloured hull large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier with 4 LNG tanks sails along the sea.
Doha, Qatar: Oil prices fell by about 2% on Friday and posted weekly losses after US jobs data shrank the odds of imminent interest rate cuts in the world’s largest economy, which could dampen crude demand. Faltering growth in China and the possibility of some easing of tensions in the Middle East also reduced prices. Brent crude futures settled at $77.33 a barrel, shedding $1.37, or 1.7%.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled at $72.28 a barrel, falling $1.54, or 2%. Both benchmarks lost roughly 7% on the week. Meanwhile, reports of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas caused prices to settle more than 2% lower on Thursday.
A pause could ease political risk looming over Gulf and Red Sea shipping lanes, which are key for global energy flows. High interest rates, which tend to dampen economic growth and oil demand, in major economies like the United States and the euro zone appear to be here to stay in the immediate future.
Data on Friday showed US employers added far more jobs in January than expected, reducing the chances of near-term Federal Reserve rate cuts. The dollar jumped against all major currencies as a result. Also keeping oil prices lower, was an outage at BP’s 435,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana.
Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices had a slight uptick last week but remain below $10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for the third week running as weak demand continues to steer prices. The average LNG price for March delivery into north-east Asia rose slightly by $0.10 last week to $9.60 per mmBtu, industry sources estimated.
The United States’ second-largest exporter Freeport LNG said on Friday it expects one of three liquefaction units at its Texas plant will be out of service for about a month after it faced a technical issue during last week’s Arctic freeze.
There was little reaction from prices after the announcement of downtime at the Freeport LNG, with ample cargo availability in the Atlantic basin. Lower prices have continued to underpin a rise in purchasing activity in south Asia, but demand has also emerged in China, where a range of different buyers have come to the spot market, partly due to expectations for a cold end to the Chinese heating season.
