MELBOURNE/SINGAPORE- Oil prices were steady on Tuesday, sitting on losses of nearly 3 percent from the previous session as supplies began to resume in Norway, the US Gulf of Mexico and Libya, while the IEA forecast a 5 percent fall in global energy demand in 2020.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures inched up 4 cents to $39.47 a barrel, while Brent crude futures also rose 4 cents to $41.76 a barrel.
Oil prices are under pressure from concerns about the return of supplies, while resurgent COVID-19 infections in the US Midwest and Europe raise worries about fuel demand growth, posing a challenge for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together called OPEC+.
With workers returning to US Gulf of Mexico platforms after Hurricane Delta and Norwegian workers returning to rigs after ending a strike, all eyes were on Libya, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which on Sunday lifted force majeure at the Sharara oilfield.
Libya’s total output on Monday was at 355,000 bpd. The Sharara field was producing 300,000 bpd of oil before the blockade.
“That would effectively add 0.3 percent of global oil supply in a very short time frame,” Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note.
