SINGAPORE, July 18 (Reuters) – Oil prices were little changed on Friday after rising in the previous session as concerns drone attacks on northern Iraqi oil fields will cut supply vied with worries of potential demand declines amid uncertainty in U.S. tariff policy.
Brent crude futures eased 4 cents, or 0.06%, to $69.48 a barrel as of 0239 GMT, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures edged down 3 cents, or 0.04%, to $67.51 a barrel.
Four days of drone attacks on oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan that shut down half of the region’s output have supported prices, pushing both contracts up $1 on Thursday.
Additionally, seasonal travel demand has propped up the market. In the first two weeks of July, global oil demand has averaged 105.2 million barrels per day (bpd), up by 600,000 bpd from a year earlier and largely in line with forecast, JPMorgan analysts said in a research note.
Still, the uncertainty around the final U.S. tariff policy, which does not appear will be settled until after August 1, is weighing on the market along with plans by major oil producers to remove their output cuts that will add to supply as the seasonal Northern Hemisphere summer demand ends. For this week, both Brent and WTI are down over 1%.
“Near-term oil fundamentals remain supportive, with the market set to remain fairly tight through this quarter, before becoming better supplied from the last three months of the year,” ING analysts said in a note.
Oil output in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has been slashed by between 140,000 and 150,000 barrels per day, two energy officials said, more than half the region’s normal output of about 280,000 bpd.
Officials pointed to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of attacks this week on the oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan, although no group has claimed responsibility.
Despite the attack, Iraq’s federal government said on Thursday that Iraqi Kurdistan will resume oil exports through a pipeline to Turkey after a two-year halt.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
