Crude oil further declines on Chinese demand concerns

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices dropped below $80.00 per barrel due to weakening Chinese demand. The market decline is persisting, and bids are approaching long-term averages, leading to a slowdown in the WTI bull run.

Tuesday saw a decline in WTI oil as investors were increasingly concerned about the possibility of a slowdown in China’s demand for fossil fuels. WTI prices were supported into a shaky recovery in late Tuesday trade by a fall in the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) weekly barrel counts; but, an equal accumulation of distillate products restrained positive potential.

China has recently released growth data for the second quarter that was below market estimates, casting doubt on the country’s potential to become a major consumer of fossil fuels. Barrels traders have shifted their focus from waiting for a spike in Chinese demand for crude oil during the majority of 2024 to being concerned that the country’s slow development would not generate enough barrel demand to absorb excess supply in international markets.


The API revealed a -4.44 million barrel decline in privately counted supplies for the week ending June 12th, marking yet another reduction in the global supply of crude oil. While end-chain refiners are finding it difficult to keep up with the supply of crude oil products, fully-refined gasoline stocks increased by 365K barrels despite the prolonged drop in barrel counts. Additionally, partially-refined distillate inventories increased by 4.92 million barrels.

Technical factors

As the downward momentum picks up speed, Tuesday’s bearish break has pulled WTI farther down below the 200-hour Exponential Moving Average (EMA) around $81.30. WTI has continued to decline following a recent surge that stopped short of the $84.00 handle, and US Crude Oil prices have declined by more than -5.5% from their peak to their July low.

WTI bids have fallen below the 200-day EMA at $79.07, following a failed bull run through the upper limit of a consolidation pattern on daily candlesticks. The price of WTI shed the $80.00 key level on Tuesday.