Singapore — Oil prices were in a holding pattern on Thursday, as a larger-than-expected draw in US crude stocks and hopes for China demand contended with worries that more aggressive US interest rate rises would slow economic growth and dent oil consumption.
“Oil prices are still under the influence of Powell’s hawkish tone recently, and the increasing possibility of another 50-basis-points hike rather than a 25bps one,” said Suvro Sarkar, lead energy analyst at DBS Bank. At a conference in Houston on Tuesday, the secretary-general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said China’s oil demand would grow 500,000 to 600,000 barrels a day in 2023, and the organisation was “quite optimistic, cautiously”.
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