Oil Extends Losses as Investors Weigh Higher OPEC+ Supply

Oil prices extended losses on Monday with investors weighing higher OPEC+ production from October against a sharp drop in output from Libya amid sluggish demand in China and the United States. Brent crude futures fell 57 cents, or 0.7%, to $76.36 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 50 cents, or 0.7%, to $73.05 a barrel. The losses followed a 0.3% decline for Brent last week and a 1.7% drop for WTI. Eight OPEC+ members are scheduled to boost output by 180,000 barrels per day in October, as part of a plan to begin unwinding their most recent layer of output cuts of 2.2 million bpd while keeping other cuts in place until end-2025. Both Brent and WTI have posted losses for two consecutive months as economic concerns in China and the US outweighed the disruption in Libyan supply and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Data from the US Energy Information Administration showed on Friday that oil consumption in the US slowed in June to the lowest seasonal levels since the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Source: Qatar News Agency