Oil is stable as the market balances risk appetite and tight supplies

Oil prices stabilized on Tuesday as the market weighed risk appetite, concerns over supply, and the prospect of increased demand as China eases its restrictions on the spread of the coronavirus.

Brent crude futures were down 44 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $119.07 a barrel by 1209 GMT.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures also fell 35 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $118.15 a barrel, after rising by more than $1 a barrel earlier in the session.

The US State Department’s authorization of Eni and Repsol to start shipping Venezuelan crude to Europe from July to offset the decline in Russian production also affected prices in the past few days.

But analysts expect the slow price movement to be short-lived, as Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese commercial hub, returned to normal life in the past days after a painful two-month closure to stop the outbreak of the mutated Omicron strain of the Coronavirus.

Analysts said that it is unlikely that the OPEC + decision to raise oil production to 648,000 barrels per day in July and August will improve the global oil balance, given the difficulty of members in achieving an increase in quotas and the fact that the increase is less than what is lost in oil. Russian crude.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, raised the official selling price of Arab Light crude to Asia in July by $2.10 compared to June to $6.50 above the Oman/Dubai average.