Sep 05, 2025 (MarketLine via COMTEX) --
There was a slight decline in crude oil prices overall during the week on worries that the global crude oil supplies might outweigh demand in the coming months. Oil production in the US continued to set new records, rising further in June 2025. Additionally, the OPEC+ group, which had already announced sizable increases to its production target from April to September, was likely to commit towards further hike in its output later this weekend. On the demand front, manufacturing activity in China remained in contraction zone during August. Nevertheless, Ukraine and Russia executed strikes on each otheraEUR(TM)s energy facilities, thereby lending some support to oil prices during the week.
Some key factors that led to changes in crude oil prices this week are as follows:
Oil prices rose on Tuesday, supported by growing risks to crude oil and fuel supplies from Russia as its conflict intensified with Ukraine in recent days. Russian airstrikes in parts of Ukraine caused major power outages while the latter increased its drone attacks on oil assets within Russia. Around 17% of the refinery capacity in Russia was estimated to have gone temporarily offline following these attacks, while crude loadings from its ports had also hit a four-week low. However, the upside to prices was somewhat restrained by record high crude oil production in the US during June 2025. As per the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the country’s output reached 13.58 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, rising by 133,000 bpd on a monthly basis. Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by growing signs of the OPEC+ announcing further hike to its collective crude oil output amid sluggish global demand outlook. The group is scheduled to meet on September 7, 2025, to finalize its production policy for October. It had started rolling back its voluntary output cuts since April 2025, thereby raising its production target by 2.2 million bpd so far. Prices were also weighed down by worries over slowing factory activity in China and its likely impact on the country’s energy consumption. As per the government data, the manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) stood at 49.4 in August 2025. This was a marginal increase of 0.1 over the previous month but remained below the expansion benchmark of 50. Oil prices slid on Thursday and Friday, weighed down by an unexpected rise in the US weekly crude stockpiles. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude inventory in the country rose by 2.4 million barrels for the week ending on August 29, 2025. Prices were also weighed down by prospects of weak economic outlook in Europe’s largest market, Germany. Prominent economic institutes in the country lowered their projections for economic growth in 2025 and 2026 due to imposition of US tariffs. Another major economy, Japan, was close to agreeing a trade deal with the US, which somewhat eased the fall in prices. The deal would allow the country to export its automobiles to US at tariffs of 15%, down from the current 27.5%. Elsewhere, the decline in prices was also contained by the US asserting Europe to halt its purchases of crude oil from Russia. Any such move could cause notable disruption in global crude oil supplies if Europe seeks alternate sellers.
http://www.datamonitor.com
Republication or redistribution, including by framing or similar means,
is expressly prohibited without prior written consent. Datamonitor shall
not be liable for errors or delays in the content, or for any actions
taken in reliance thereon
COMTEX_468709717/2227/2025-09-11T18:06:30
Copyright (C) 2025 Datamonitor. All rights reserved
