WTI drops to the five-month lows below $70.00 amid China’s oil demand concern

Western Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $69.80 on Thursday. WTI prices decline to the lowest since July as investors are worried about China’s oil demand growth and the effectiveness of the OPEC+ voluntary production cut.

According to data released on Thursday by the General Administration of Customs, China, the world's top oil importer, has seen arrivals of 10.33 million barrels per day (bpd). This figure was down 10.4% from October's 11.53 million bpd and 9.3% lower than the same month the previous year. This, in turn, has fuelled worries about the Chinese economy and exerts some selling pressure on WTI prices.

Apart from this, US crude oil inventories dropped by 4.632M barrels for the week ending December 1 from the previous reading of 1.609M rise, according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday.

Oil markets are also dissatisfied that OPEC+, which includes OPEC members and allies like Russia, will be able to deliver on 2.2 million bpd production cuts in the first quarter of next year. Nonetheless, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak attempted to reassure the market this week that the announced supply cuts might be extended or perhaps deepened.

Moving on, oil traders will focus on the US weekly Jobless Claims data on Thursday, which is expected to rise by 222K for the week ending December 1. On Friday, the highly anticipated US Nonfarm Payrolls will be in the spotlight. These events could significantly impact the USD-denominated WTI price. Oil traders will take cues from the data and find trading opportunities around WTI prices.