Oil moves in a narrow range on fears of slowing demand and supply uncertainty

On Friday, oil prices moved in a narrow range after briefly rising around $1 a barrel, as the market weighed fears of slowing demand due to lower economic activity in the United States and uncertainty surrounding supplies.

Brent crude futures fell five cents, or 0.1 percent, to $110 a barrel by 0310 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 19 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $104.46 a barrel. Prices fell about 1.5 percent in the previous session.

Steven Innes, managing partner at SBI Asset Management, said crude futures were back in sell-side mode after the US manufacturing and services PMI came in well below expectations, along with a dip in German manufacturing data.

Sources said that OPEC and allied producing countries, including Russia, will likely stick to a plan to accelerate oil production in August in the hope of easing high oil prices and inflation as US President Joe Biden plans to visit Saudi Arabia.

At its last meeting on June 2, the group known as OPEC + agreed to increase production by 648,000 barrels per day in July, or 0.7 percent of global demand, and by the same amount in August, up from an initial increase of 432,000 barrels per day. For three months until September.

But the group is finding it difficult to meet the monthly increase targets due to the reluctance of OPEC member countries to invest in the oil fields in addition to the lack of Russian production in recent times.