The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) fell 2.9% on Monday to settle at $89.41 a barrel, due to concerns about demand in China, the world’s largest crude importer.
At the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the WTI futures contracts for delivery in September subtracted 2.68 dollars from the previous close.
The value of US black gold fell below $90 a barrel for the first time in more than a week.
China consumes more than 15% of the world’s oil, so the slowdown in Chinese growth is expected to affect commodity markets in the coming months.
Industrial production in China increased by 3.8% year-on-year in July, a figure lower than that of the previous month and also significantly below analysts’ expectations.
The Chinese National Statistics Office (ONE) also published today other indicators for the seventh month of the year, such as retail sales – a measure of the state of consumption, key to economic recovery -, which also surprised negatively by increasing by 2.7%. year-on-year, less than the 3.1% in June and the 5% forecast by experts.
In addition, oil supplies could increase if Iran and the United States accept a European Union offer to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which would remove sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdolahian said Monday that his country will respond before midnight today to the proposal to save the nuclear pact.
Natural gas futures for September fell 4 cents to $8.72, and gasoline futures due the same month added 9 cents to $2.95 a gallon.