Oil prices drop as fears over trade war, weaker demand return to haunt market

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday for a second straight session as the cons of a slowing global demand outlook outweighed the pros of OPEC’s agreement with associated producers at the end of last week to deepen crude output cuts in early 2020.Brent futures were down 11 cents, or 0.2%, at $64.14 per barrel by 0738 GMT. West Texas Intermediate oil futures were 10 cents, or 0.2%, lower at $58.92 a barrel.Data released on Sunday showed exports from China in November fell 1.1% from a year earlier, confounding expectations for a 1% rise in a Reuters poll.That weakness came amid fresh fronts in the trade war between Washington and Beijing that has stymied global economic growth coming up fast: Washington’s next round of tariffs against some $156 billion Chinese goods are scheduled to take effect on Dec. 15.

” said Henning Gloystein, director of global energy and natural resources at Eurasia Group in a note.Since the start of 2017, when OPEC and its allies began capping supply, U.S. crude production has soared from about 8.8 million bpd to a record 13 million bpd recently, and is expected to rise further in 2020. [EIA/M]”Going forward, oil prices are likely to be more data-driven, and move in tandem with demand forecasts,” said Margaret Yang, market analyst at CMC Markets.