Oil prices mixed amid global growth jitters

August 20, 2011 | 08:07

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Oil prices finished mixed Friday as markets fretted about the impact of slowing global economic growth on crude demand.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in September, slipped 12 cents to close at $82.26 a barrel, deepening a 6.0 per cent dive on Thursday.

In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for October delivery settled at $108.62, a solid increase of $1.63.

The New York contract has fallen 3.6 per cent over the week. On Friday, trading was choppy, in line with Wall Street stocks, as investors faced rising uncertainty about global growth and worries about public debt in the United States and Europe.

The divergence between WTI and Brent "just typifies the uncertainty on the market at the moment," said Matt Smith at Summit Energy.

A day after a slew of dim US economic indicators on unemployment, housing and manufacturing, US banks JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo lowered their growth forecasts for the world's largest oil consumer.

The American Petroleum Institute, which represent the US oil and natural gas industry, said Friday that US oil demand weakened for the first time this year in July.

"Total petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) fell in July by half a per cent compared with July a year ago," API said in a statement.

July demand for gasoline had hit a 10-year low, it said.

"The numbers, though mixed, confirm continuing weakness in the economy," API chief economist John Felmy said in the statement.

"Consumers aren't spending, and jobless claims have increased, so it isn't surprising gasoline demand was down and overall demand slipped a bit."

AFP

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