By Alex Lawler
LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Brent crude fell on Tuesday as fears of a global economic slowdown dampening demand outweighed supply cuts and led investors to take profits after the gains in the day before.
* In the broader financial market, attention is focused on the release of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting on Wednesday, after the latest data raised the risk that interest rates could be held longer .
* Brent crude fell 58 cents, or 0.69%, to $83.49 a barrel at 1000 GMT. US March West Texas Intermediate crude, due Tuesday, rose 32 cents, or 0.42%, to $76.66.
* The US contract was not settled on Monday as it is a US holiday. As a result, the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) weekly report on US inventories will be released on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday as usual.
* Oil rose more than 1% on Monday on optimism about Chinese demand, which analysts said will rebound this year after the removal of COVID-19 restrictions that had limited its use.
* In addition, signs of tighter supply also provided some support for prices.
* Russia plans to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels a day, or about 5% of output, in March after the West imposed price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products during the invasion of Ukraine.
* Russia is part of the OPEC+ producer group, made up of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, which agreed in October to cut its oil production targets by 2 million barrels a day until at the end of 2023.
*As for 2023, demand will outstrip supply, according to PVM broker Tamas Varga.
* “After a turbulent 2022, it looks increasingly plausible that the global economy will avoid recession, interest rates will peak over the (boreal) summer, and global oil consumption will gradually increase, while oil supply will struggle to keep up with growing demand,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)