FX.co ★ Oil Falls Below $100 as Supply Fears Ease

Crude oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Friday, wiping out earlier gains after a volatile trading session and marking a third straight daily decline. Market participants now expect the closure of Saudi Arabia’s key pipeline to have a more limited effect on global supplies than initially feared.

Satellite data indicates that Saudi Arabia shipped about 2.8 million barrels per day through the Strait of Hormuz over the past six days, compared with just 700,000 barrels per day in August. The kingdom has reportedly sold up to 60 million barrels of crude from the Persian Gulf port of Ras Tanura for September and October delivery outside the strait, using ship-to-ship transfers.

Supply concerns were further eased by reports that Aramco expects to restore roughly half of the pipeline’s daily throughput. Even so, only four commodity vessels were tracked moving through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. The volumes moving through Hormuz are being absorbed primarily by refiners in China and South Korea.

China exported 6.01 million tons of refined fuels in August, a 12.7% year-on-year increase. For the week, oil prices were down 0.5%.