Black commodities continued to lose support at the start of trading earlier in the week, under pressure from higher supply expectations to curb rising oil prices in the United States.
Speculation that President Joe Biden’s administration may remove oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices continues to hover around the market, especially after being exposed with soaring inflation data.
According to analysts, the White House has been debating ways to deal with higher inflation, with some officials urging measures to use oil reserves be taken or halt U.S. exports.
Over the weekend, Senate majority leader Charles Schumer urged Biden to leverage emergency reserves.
Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday, reduced its forecast for world oil demand for the fourth quarter by 330,000 barrels a day from last month's projection.
This keeps the movement of crude oil prices limited to the opening of trading earlier in the week.
Entering the European session, Brent crude futures traded lower at $ 81.65 a barrel, while US WTI traded down to $ 79.15 a barrel.
