By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices continued to drop on Wednesday, making it a second straight day of losses after US crude inventories unexpectedly rose and worries about demand could fall following US President Donald Trump’s speech about trade talks with China at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Brent crude, dropped off 1.11 percent or $0.69 to trade at $61.43 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also fell 1.1 percent or $0.63 to $56.66 per barrel.
The OPEC Basket was not faring much too as it was traded down at $63.93 per barrel dropping from a higher $64 after shedding 0.90 percent equivalent to 58 Cents.
It was further observed that oil prices also dropped due to a rally in the dollar as the Democratic-led chamber was reported to be launching an official presidential impeachment inquiry on Donald Trump.
Also adding to oil woes on Wednesday, US crude inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels last week according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) instead of declining by 249,000 barrels as analysts forecast.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump said on Wednesday that a deal to end a nearly 15-month trade war with China could happen sooner than people think.
Global markets had weakened on Tuesday after he called out China’s trade practices during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly saying he would not accept a bad deal in the US-China trade negotiations following several sanctions by both parties.
Oil could continue to dip as reports stated that Saudi Arabia has restored production capacity to 11.3 million barrels per day, it’s recovery happening faster than expected.
Dipo Olowookere