Oil Prices Drop More Than 3% and Brent Crude
Settles at $64.35 per Barrel
July 17, 2019
Oil prices turned lower on Tuesday, falling more than 3% after
U.S. President Donald Trump said progress has been made with
Iran, signaling tensions could ease in the Mideast.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell $2.13 a barrel, or 3.2%, to
settle at $64.35. The international benchmark hit a session high
of $67.09 earlier in the day.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 settled at $57.62 a
barrel, down $1.96, or 3.3%.
Trump on Tuesday said a lot of progress had been made with Iran
and that he was not looking for regime change in the country.
Uncertainty about China’s economic prospects also pressured
prices lower after data on Monday showed growth in the country
had slowed to 6.2% from a year earlier, the weakest pace in at
least 27 years.
Additionally, U.S. oil companies on Monday began restoring some
of the nearly 74% of production that was shut at platforms in
the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Barry.
Workers were returning to the more than 280 production platforms
that had been evacuated. It can take several days for full
production to resume.
(Reuters)
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