Oil edges lower on global growth fears
A proposal to cancel the April meeting on Oped-led supply cuts helped push down prices further
London — Oil slipped to around $67 a barrel on Monday, weighed by concern that an economic downturn may dent fuel consumption, despite the prospect of prolonged Opec-led oil supply curbs. Japan’s exports fell for a third month in February and US manufacturing output fell. Analysts at Bernstein Energy said on Monday that while they expect oil demand to rise by 1.3-million barrels a day in 2019, a global slowdown could limit growth to below 1-million barrels a day. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 26c to $66.90 a barrel at 10.25am GMT. It reached a 2019 high of $68.14 last week. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 37c at $58.15. Oil edged lower after an Opec source said a panel meeting on Monday to review progress with an Opec-led supply cut deal is recommending the producers cancel a policy meeting in April, seen as a bearish outcome to the talks. “It’s a surprise, I don’t think it was expected,” said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. “It’s quite unusual to canc...
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