* Trump official denies report on interim China trade deal
-CNBC
* No discussion of deeper OPEC+ cuts before December -Saudi
* ECB cuts rates to prop up sluggish euro zone growth
* U.S. briefly overtakes Saudi Arabia as top oil exporter
-IEA
* IEA says balancing market in 2020 will be "daunting"
(Updates prices to settlement; adds comments)
By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 1% on
Thursday after a media report cast doubt on the possibility of
an interim U.S.-China trade deal and as a meeting of the OPEC+
alliance yielded no decision on deepening crude supply cuts.
Oil was pressured further after the European Central Bank
cut its deposit rate to a record low -0.5% from -0.4% and said
it will restart bond purchases of 20 billion euros a month from
November to prop up euro zone growth. Brent crude LCOc1 futures settled at $60.38 a barrel,
shedding 43 cents, or 0.71%. WTI crude CLc1 futures settled at
$55.09 a barrel, losing 66 cents, or 1.18%.
Oil futures extended losses after a senior White House
official denied a Bloomberg News report that the United States
was considering a temporary trade agreement with China,
according to CNBC.
Earlier, prices had been supported on news that the world's
two largest economies made some concessions in their protracted
trade war. "We had a lot of moving parts. We came in with the ECB, then
we saw the U.S was going to reach some kind of interim agreement
with China, then they ended up saying they're not," said Phillip
Streible, senior commodities strategist at RJO Futures in
Chicago. "Now we're just back-pedaling and cautiously waiting
for the next development in the market, whether it be from
economic data, more verbiage from OPEC, and we're still going to
monitor inventories as a whole."
Oil prices also stumbled after comments from Saudi Arabia's
new energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said deeper
cuts would not be decided upon before a meeting of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries planned for
December. A Thursday meeting of the market-monitoring committee formed
by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies, whose de facto leader is Saudi Arabia, yielded a promise
to keep countries within the production quotas they committed to
in a global supply deal. OPEC/O
A statement from OPEC and its allies, a grouping known as
OPEC+, said oil stocks in industrial countries remained above
the five-year average. Oman's energy minister said "the outlook
is not very good for 2020." Prince Abdulaziz said Saudi Arabia would keep cutting by
more than it pledged in the pact, which has throttled supply
from OPEC+ by 1.2 million barrels per day.
Also feeding the bearish sentiment, the International Energy
Agency said surging U.S. output would make balancing the market
"daunting" in 2020. "Booming shale production has allowed the U.S. to close in
on, and briefly overtake, Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil
exporter ... in June, after crude exports surged above 3 million
bpd," the agency, which advises industrial economies on energy
policy, said in its monthly report.
The Paris-based IEA kept its oil demand growth forecasts for
this and next year at 1.1 million barrels per day and 1.3
million barrels per day, respectively.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
GRAPHIC: U.S. crude oil inventory levels https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ino7XU
GRAPHIC: U.S. petroleum stocks, weekly changes https://tmsnrt.rs/2XlX17b
CHART: U.S. oil may fall to $54.83 per barrel Brent oil may retest support at $60.62 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
(
Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York
Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in London and Aaron
Sheldrick in Tokyo
Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)