Oil steady on the week

Oil steady on the week

Oil prices fell on Friday on course for little change on the week as a planned European ban on Russian oil balanced out investor concerns about weakening economic growth hitting demand.

Brent futures for July were down10 cents, or 0.1%, to $111.94 a barrel by 0920 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for June fell 56 cents, or 0.5%, to $111.65 on its last day as the front-month.

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The more actively traded WTI contract for July was down 0.23 cents at $109.66 a barrel.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged Asian economies to be mindful of spillover risks from monetary tightening.

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The European Union is hoping to clinch a deal on a proposed ban of Russian crude imports which includes carve-outs for EU states most dependent on Russian oil such as Hungary.

“Odds of an EU embargo being declared sooner rather than later increased in the wake of Germany’s success in cutting Russian oil imports by more than half in a very short period,” consultancy BCA research said in a note.

“Further reductions in Germany’s imports of Russian oil will make it easier for the EU’s largest economy to walk away from Russian crude and product imports sooner rather than later.”

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Iran, meanwhile, is having a tougher time selling its crude now that more Russian barrels are available with Iranian crude exports to China down sharply since the start of the Ukraine war as Beijing buys discounted Russian barrels

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