{"id":45728,"date":"2026-09-17T08:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45728"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T10:45:17","slug":"oil-prices-extend-losses-on-easing-fears-of-middle-east-supply-disruption","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oil-prices-extend-losses-on-easing-fears-of-middle-east-supply-disruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices extend losses on easing fears of Middle East supply disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Oil prices eased on Thursday, extending losses on reports of Saudi Arabia offering extra \u200bcrude cargoes through Oman, which reduced fears of supply disruptions, but stayed above $100 on concerns about \u200cthe Middle East conflict expanding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Brent crude futures dropped $1.88, or 1.8%, to $103.95 a barrel, while United States (US) West Texas Intermediate futures were down $1.77, or 1.7%, at $100.66 a barrel. Both contracts fell about $3 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Concerns over supply tightness eased slightly following news that Saudi Arabia would \u200bship cargo via Oman,&#8221; said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Expectations \u200bof progress toward easing tensions in the Middle East ahead of the US and China summit next week \u2060are also capping price gains,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship \u200btransfers off Oman&#8217;s Sohar port, people familiar with the matter said, blunting some of the hit to global supply from attacks \u200bon Saudi Arabia&#8217;s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">However, some analysts were expecting these flows to only ease a portion of the supply loss from the kingdom&#8217;s Red Sea port, capping the declines in oil prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The pick-up in flows through the Strait of Hormuz &#8220;is only \u200bpartly offsetting lost export barrels following drone attacks that shut Saudi Arabia&#8217;s East-West pipeline,&#8221; Saxo Bank analysts said in a \u200bnote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16416,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-45728","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Oil prices eased on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45729,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45728\/revisions\/45729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}