Oil down for a second day as U.S Gulf of Mexico output returns

Reuters

Published Jul 16, 2019 01:47

Oil down for a second day as U.S Gulf of Mexico output returns

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a second day on Tuesday as more production facilities returned to operation in the U.S. Gulf after Hurricane Barry swept through over the weekend, while Chinese economic data dimmed the outlook for crude demand.

Brent crude futures (LCOc1) were down 10 cents, or 0.2%, at $66.38 a barrel by 0028 GMT. They fell 0.4% overnight.

U.S. crude (CLc1) fell by 10 cents, or 0.2% to $59.48 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark fell about 1% in the previous session.

Both contracts last week made their biggest weekly gains in three weeks as U.S. oil inventories fell and diplomatic tensions rose in the Middle East.

But as producers on Monday began restoring some of the nearly 74% of output that was shut at U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms ahead of Hurricane Barry, concerns about oversupply returned to the fore.

And while Chinese data on Monday showed industrial output and retail data beat expectations, overall figures showed the country's slowest quarterly economic growth in decades.

China's oil throughput rose to a record 13.07 million barrels per day in June, up 7.7% from a year earlier, following the start-up of two new large refineries, official data showed.

Still, economic growth of just 6.2% in the second quarter of 2019 - the weakest in 27 years - highlighted the impact of trade tensions with Washington and raised the possibility that more incentives might be needed to jump-start the economy.

"The more significant drag on oil markets is China's weaker consumption data," said Stephen Innes, managing partner, at Vanguard Markets.

In the U.S. there was 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production offline in the U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, about 80,000 barrels fewer than on Sunday.