By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices continued to fall on Monday as the threat of a supply disruption from a U.S. storm receded and China's stimulus plan disappointed investors looking for fuel demand growth at 's the world's largest oil consumer.
Brent crude futures were down 19 cents, or 0.3%, at $73.68 a barrel by 0104 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $70.13 a barrel, down 25 cents or 0.4%.
Both benchmarks fell more than 2% last Friday.
Beijing's stimulus package announced Friday at the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee meeting fell short of market expectations, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note, adding that the murky forward guidance was only modest stimulus for housing and consumption.
ANZ analysts said the lack of direct fiscal stimulus implied that Chinese policymakers have left room to assess the impact of policies the next US administration will introduce.
“The market will now shift focus to the Politburo meeting and the Central Economic Working Conference in December, where we expect more countercyclical measures in favor of consumption to be announced,” she added.
China's oil consumption, which has been the driving force behind global demand growth for years, will barely grow in 2024 as economic growth has slowed, gasoline consumption has declined due to the rapid growth of electric vehicles and liquefied natural gas has replaced diesel as truck fuel.
Oil prices have also fallen after concerns about supply disruptions caused by Storm Rafael in the US Gulf of Mexico subsided.
More than a quarter of US Gulf of Mexico oil and 16% of natural gas production remained offline on Sunday, according to the offshore energy regulator.
Looking ahead, policy uncertainty under newly-elected US President Donald Trump has clouded the global economic outlook, although expectations that he could tighten sanctions on OPEC producers Iran and Venezuela and cut oil supplies to global markets partly helped that oil prices rose by more than 1% last year. week.
Oil markets are also supported by robust demand from U.S. refineries, which are expected to operate their plants at more than 90% of their crude processing capacity with low inventories and increasing demand for gasoline and diesel, industry executives and experts said. industry.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sonali Paul)
