Oil settles lower, posts third straight weekly gain

Oil drilling rigs

Oil prices stabilized today, July 14, heading for the third straight weekly gain amid supply shortage due to issues in Libya and Nigeria as well as low US inflation.

Brent crude for September delivery shed 1.85%, or $1.49, to $70.87 a barrel. The front-month contract recorded weekly gains of 1.8%.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery dropped 1.9%, or $1.47 to settle at $75.42 a barrel despite posting a weekly rise of 2.1%.

The Libya disruption is halting an estimated 370,000 barrels per day (bpd) while the loss from the Nigerian outage is pegged at 225,000 bpd, Reuters reported, citing a PVM analyst.

The US drilling rig count decreased by three units to 537 in the week ended July 14, General Electric Co.’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. The US rig count fell to the lowest level since April 1, 2022.

Further, US petroleum import prices rose 1.1% in June, after a drop of 3.8% in May, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.