Oil prices hit three-month low, heading for weekly loss as summer season kicks off

Crude oil futures fell to a three-month low on Friday and are headed for a weekly loss as the summer driving season begins with the Memorial Day holiday.

US crude oil hit an intraday low of $76.15, the lowest level since February 26. Global benchmark Brent fell to $80.65, the lowest level since February 8. The two benchmarks are poised for a weekly loss of around 4% and 3%. , respectively.

Here are today’s energy prices:

• West Texas Intermediate July contract: $76.67 a barrel, down 19 cents, or 0.25%. Since the start of the year, American oil is up 7%.
• Brent July contract: $81.13 a barrel, down 23 cents, or 0.26%. Since the start of the year, the global benchmark is up 5.3%.
• June RBOB Gasoline contract: $2.45 per gallon, down 0.6%. Year to date, gasoline futures are up 16.7%.
• Natural gas June contract: $2.63 per thousand cubic feet, down 0.87%. Since the start of the year, gas is up 4.6%.

“Macroeconomic developments have failed to provide significant support for oil, which has its own problems to resolve,” said Tamas Varga, an analyst at oil broker PVM, pointing to Russia’s overproduction in April despite commitments from reduce production with other OPEC+ members.

OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, will hold a virtual meeting on June 2 to review production policy. A coalition of OPEC+ members voluntarily holds 2.2 million barrels per day out of the market to support prices.

“Next week’s OPEC meeting is expected to push back the current production cap by a large margin, especially now that oil prices are in a relentless downtrend,” Varga said.

“But that probably wouldn’t be enough to unambiguously improve the mood, simply because there is almost 6 mbpd of supply cushion attached to a seemingly oversupplied market,” the analyst said.