Oil eases as weaker demand outlook counters Mideast supply concerns

Brent crude futures dropped 42 cents, or 0.47 per cent, to $88.56 a barrel on Thursday, according to The Express Tribune, undoing part of a six-session climb. West Texas Intermediate lost 55 cents, or 0.66 per cent, to $82.72, having risen across the previous five trading days. Market attention moved toward weaker demand forecasts, since the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remained stalled.

Talks between Iran and the United States on reviving a June interim agreement made no headway, a senior Iranian source said Wednesday. ING analysts described the two sides as deadlocked, while a large drone attack on Russia's Novorossiysk port appeared to have spared oil terminals. US commercial crude stocks climbed 17.4 million barrels to 424.4 million, the biggest weekly rise since January 2023, as exports fell in the week to August 7.

OPEC trimmed its 2026 global oil demand growth estimate to 580,000 barrels per day in its monthly report. The International Energy Agency now expects consumption to shrink by 1.6 million bpd this year, a deeper contraction than the 1 million bpd it projected last month. Both bodies pointed to higher prices and constrained supply tied to the US-Israeli war with Iran, while Haitong Futures warned that vessels switching off signals made actual supply harder to track.