Oil futures settled slightly lower on Thursday amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand due to global economic slowdown.
Data released by the General Administration of Customs today showed China's crude imports dropped to their weakest in four months in November, trumping bullish demand forecasts from leading industry participants.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.04 at $69.34 a barrel.
Brent crude futures were down $0.03 at $74.27 a barrel a little while ago.
Oil prices fell on Wednesday on data showing a larger than expected increase in U.S. gasoline stockpiles last week, and skepticism over OPEC+'s recently announced voluntary supply cuts due to fractures within the alliance.
Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 5.4 million barrels last week, more than 5 times the expected increase.
Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at OANDA, U.K. & EMEA, says, "Oil prices have steadied today after falling heavily on Wednesday. That came following the break of the November lows, resulting in daily losses of almost 4% and oil trading at five-month lows. OPEC+ may not be feeling too good about last week's deal now and there's still plenty of momentum with the sell-off so it could get worse before it gets better."
