Oil Prices Ease From 7-Week Highs As Investors Book Profits Amid Supply-Demand Uncertainty
Brent futures fell 18 cents, or 0.26 per cent, to $69.13 per barrel by 9:20 AM, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 20 cents, or 0.31 per cent, to $64.79 per barrel.
Oil prices fell on Thursday as investors booked profits after crude prices hit a seven-week high during the previous session.
According to a Reuters report, this ease was attributed to a surprise drop in US weekly crude inventories and is related to Ukraine's attacks on the Russian energy infrastructure, which could possibly disrupt supplies.
Brent futures fell 18 cents, or 0.26 per cent, to $69.13 per barrel by 9:20 AM, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures declined 20 cents, or 0.31 per cent, to $64.79 per barrel.
Both of these benchmarks rose 2.5 per cent in the previous session on Wednesday.
What Do Analysts Say?
Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG said, "After testing and bouncing from the bottom of its recent range earlier this week, crude oil has rebounded back towards the upper bound of its recent range. With this in mind, we are likely seeing some light profit taking this morning."
The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that prices were supported after US crude inventories fell by a surprise 607,000 barrels for the week ended September 19, 2025.
Additionally, the draw also contrasted analysts’ expectations for a 235,000-barrel build in a Reuters poll and was smaller than the 3.8 million-barrel draw that market sources said the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday.
What Other Factors Influenced Oil Prices?
Oil prices were further supported by supply concerns stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war as well.
While Ukraine has amped-up its drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure recently, targeting refineries and export terminals to reduce Moscow's export revenues, Russia is simultaneously seeing shortage of certain fuel grades with possible export restrictions on fuel if needed.
A Haitong Securities report also added that despite several concerns over Russia's supply disruptions, another key factor behind oil's resilience was the lack of significant downward pressure from supply-demand fundamentals in recent weeks.
Further, there are expectations of mounting oversupply pressure are yet to be reflected in prices, the report added.
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