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Brent crude slipped 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $81.44 a barrel by
1135 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 13 cents,
or 0.2%, at $77.74.
Both contracts fell more than 5% last week for their first
weekly declines in five as U.S. implied gasoline demand fell
from a year earlier.
Weak U.S. economic data and worse than expected corporate
earnings from the technology sector sparked growth concerns
among investors, CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng said. The
stabilising U.S. dollar and climbing bond yields are also adding
pressure on commodity markets, she added.
Central banks from the United States to Britain and Europe are
all expected to raise interest rates when they meet in the first
week of May, seeking to tackle stubbornly high inflation.
China's bumpy economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic is
also clouding the oil demand outlook, though Chinese customs
data showed on Friday that the world's top crude importer
brought in record volumes in March. China's imports from leading
suppliers Russia and Saudi Arabia topped 2 million barrels per
day (bpd) each.
Refining margins in Asia, meanwhile, have weakened on record
production from top refiners China and India, curbing the
region's appetite for Middle East supplies loading in June.
Yet analysts and traders remained bullish about China's fuel
demand recovery towards the second half of 2023 and potential
supply tightness owing to additional supply cuts planned by the
OPEC+ producer group from May.
"Planned output cuts by the OPEC+ alliance and a strong demand
outlook from China could provide a fillip to prices in the
coming days", said independent oil analyst Sugandha Sachdeva.
"Brent is likely to find key support around $79 a barrel, while
for WTI crude support is aligned at $75," she said.
(Reporting by Noah Browning; Additional reporting by Florence
Tan in Singapore and Mohi Narayan in New Delhi; Editing by David
Goodman)
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