Investing.com– Oil prices settled lower Tuesday as impact to oil-producing infrastructure across Texas from Hurricane Beryl weren’t as bad as feared, easing bets on supply disruptions.
At 14:30 ET (18:30 GMT), Brent oil futures slipped 1.3% to $84.66 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.1% to $81.41 a barrel.
Texas oil infrastructure recovers from Beryl
Oil and gas companies in Texas were seen quickly restarting operations on Tuesday, and ports were set to reopen as the impact of Hurricane Beryl was expected to be minor.
“Early indications suggest that most energy infrastructure has come through unscathed,” said analysts at ING, in a note. “Some refineries, offshore oil and gas platforms, ports and LNG facilities were shut as a precaution. Some of this infrastructure is already resuming operations, such as the Port of Corpus Christi – a key crude oil export hub for the US.”
Gaza ceasefire chatter dents oil prices
Crude prices fell sharply on Monday as a slew of media reports marked some progress in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas was seen making several major concessions last week to meet a ceasefire with Israel. But Israel kept up its assault on Gaza, carrying out new strikes on Monday.
Hamas leaders said that continued aggression by Israel could jeopardize ceasefire negotiations.
The U.S. was also seen pressing Israel to reach a ceasefire. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that any ceasefire should allow Israel to keep fighting until its war objectives were met.
Fresh US inventory, economic data in spotlight
The American Petroleum Institute‘s weekly forecast of U.S. crude inventories, expected to be released later in the session, is forecast to show draw.
Bets on summer demand eating into domestic inventories were given a huge boost last week after the Energy Information Administration reported a massive 12.2M barrel decline in U.S. weekly inventories.
The crude data from the API comes just a day of the official government petroleum report expected to show a decline of 250,000 barrels for the week ended Jul. 5.
The market’s focus this week was also on a slew of economic signals from China, which are set to offer more cues on the world’s biggest oil importer.
Chinese trade and inflation readings are due through the week, and are likely to tie into the outlook for Chinese demand.
Concerns over a potential trade war between China and the West also remained in play, after the European Union imposed steep tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.
(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
This post is originally published on INVESTING.
