Oil prices slid by over 1% on Friday, following the cessation of a labour action by oil workers in Norway that accelerated oil production, while Hurricane Delta compelled United States oil and gas companies to reduce output.
Brent crude futures shed 49 cents or 1.1% to close at $42.85 per barrel just as U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude shed 59 cents or 1.4%, settling at $40.60.
Bonny Light, Nigeria’s top crude grade, advanced by 30 cents or 0.72% to $41.88 just as Qua Iboe, another major national grade, drifted up $1.12 or 2.74% to $41.98.
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Even with the slip in prices on Friday, Brent and WTI added approximately 9% this week, meaning their first rise in three weeks at the same time the largest weekly improvement for benchmark Brent since June.
Oil futures lifted earlier in the week over anxieties surrounding the potential of a strike in Norway and the hurricane homing in on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico would crash oil production.
On Friday, energy companies in Norway sealed a wage pact with labour union officials, terminating an industrial action was bound to imperil the country’s energy output by close to one-fourth in the week right ahead.
Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago said “one of the bullish factors that had been supporting prices fell apart late in the day when it was announced that Norway would end their strike.”
Uncertainties voiced by Republicans in the United States Senate that a COVID-19 relief deal could be struck before the 3rd November presidential poll also hurt prices.
Earlier during the day, oil prices were positive for a moment after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated she would continue discussions on a planned $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package deal with Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary.
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Hurricane Delta wreaked the most enormous havoc on U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production in a decade and a half, putting a stopper on most of the region’s oil and about two-thirds of natural gas production.
JP Morgan said a dim worldwide oil demand prospect on account of possible surge in coronavirus infections this winter would probably drive the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cancel a proposed easing of oil cuts, with Saudi Arabia offering more profound cuts lower than its current quota.
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