Oil Prices Fall on Chinese Weak Data

• Oil Prices Fall on Chinese Weak Data

Global oil prices declined on Monday following weaker than expected Chinese economic data.

Data showed import and export declined in December in China, the world’s largest importer of crude oil. Fueling fears slowing economic growth in the world’s second-largest economy will impact global crude demand in 2019.

Despite the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) saying global demand remains strong and even reduced global supplies by 1.2 million barrels a day to prop up prices, crude oil fell by 1.2 percent.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.2 percent to $51.11 a barrel, while Brent crude dropped about 2 percent to $59.62.

“The global economy is strong enough, I’m not too concerned. If a slowdown happens, it will be mild, shallow and short,” Saudi energy minister Khalid Al Falih said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.

In an effort to ease worries, the minister further said there is little to no impact from U.S.-China trade disputes on global crude oil demand.

However, he said OPEC and U.S. producers are not rivals.

U.S. producers “call me when they see the price band drop down and they see investors starting to turn away, and they say it’s time to do something,” Al-Falih told Bloomberg. “They want us to do all of the work and they want to take the benefit, but that’s, you know, that’s life.”