Brent futures were down 1 cent to settle at $72.69 a barrel, while U.S. WTI crude declined 5 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $69.15
Oil prices held at a 14-month low on Thursday as worries about demand in the U.S. and China and a likely spike in supplies out of Libya offset a big withdrawal from U.S. inventories and a delay to output increases by OPEC+ producers.
Brent futures were down 1 cent to settle at $72.69 a barrel, while U.S. WTI crude declined 5 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $69.15.
That was the lowest close for Brent since June 2023 for a second successive day and the lowest close for WTI since December 2023 for a third consecutive day.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said energy firms pulled 6.9 million barrels of crude out of storage during the week ended August 30.
That was in line with the draw of 7.4 million barrels reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) industry group on Wednesday.
Further support came from discussions between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, known collectively as OPEC+, about delaying output increases due to start in October.
OPEC+ agreed to delay a planned oil output rise for October and November, and said it could further pause or reverse the hikes if needed.
Analysts at U.S. investment banking firm Jefferies said the OPEC+ decision has the effect of tightening fourth-quarter balances by around 100,000-200,000 bpd and should be sufficient to prevent material builds even if demand from China does not improve.
Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, however, said the market was not impressed with the OPEC+ news.
The gasoline market would be capable of catering crude oil even if the OPEC+ chaos was not leaning on the price. If you do not need the gasoline, you do not need the crude oil to make gasoline, Yawger added.
After energy firms added a surprise 0.8 million barrels of gasoline to U.S. stockpiles last week, U.S. gasoline futures declined to their lowest close since March 2021.
