During the day oil quotes turned to fall on fears of slowing growth of the Chinese economy and increasing oil supplies to the world market. Brent crude futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $4.71, or 4.8%, to $93.44 a barrel. Will crude oil prices fall even more? 

By that time, WTI September futures on the NYMEX fell $4.54, or 4.93%, to $87.55 per barrel.

Why did oil prices fall today? 

On Friday, Brent was $1.45 cheaper and WTI fell $2.25.

It became known on Monday that growth in retail sales and industrial output in China in July was weaker than analysts’ forecasts. Retail sales rose 2.7% year-over-year instead of the expected 5%, and industrial production growth in China slowed to 3.8% last month from 3.9% in June, although the consensus analyst forecast was for a 4.6% gain.

Last week, OPEC lowered its 2022 oil demand growth forecast by 0.3 million bpd to 3.1 million bpd because of some regional changes. The 2023 growth forecast was kept at 2.7 million bpd, the organization said in its monthly report.

Thus, in 2022, according to OPEC estimates, oil consumption will be 100.03 million bpd, rather than 100.3 million bpd, as previously expected.

Meanwhile, Amin Nasser, head of Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222), the Saudi state oil and gas company, said over the weekend that Saudi Aramco was ready to increase its oil production to the maximum possible 12 million bpd if the Kingdom’s government expresses a desire to do so.

Earlier we reported that сopper price per pound declined on doubts about demand in China.