2025-10-18T05:36:33+00:00

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Shafaq News

Oil prices managed small gains on Friday but were headed
for a weekly loss of nearly 3% after the IEA forecast a growing glut and U.S.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet
again to discuss Ukraine.

Brent crude futures settled at $61.29 a barrel, up 23
cents, or 0.38%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures finished at $57.54 a
barrel, up 8 cents, or 0.14%.

Trump and Putin agreed on Thursday to another summit on
the war in Ukraine, to be held in the next two weeks in Hungary.

That comes on top of a cease-fire agreement ending, at
least temporarily, the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was headed to
the White House on Friday to push for more military support, including
U.S.-made long-range Tomahawk missiles, while Washington pressured India and
China to stop buying Russian oil.

“We’ve had the once-in-a-generation peace deal in
the Middle East, Iran is neutralized and now Ukraine; an unprecedented amount
of risk has come out of the market,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with
Price Futures Group.

This week’s decline was also partly due to rising trade
tensions between the U.S. and China, which added to concerns about an economic
slowdown and lower energy demand.

“It just demolishes confidence,” said Jorge
Montepeque, managing director at Onyx Capital Group, who expects the U.S.
economy will quickly be affected.

On Friday, a fire overnight at BP Plc’s (BP.L), opens
new tab Whiting, Indiana, refinery was expected to affect only the Midwest
market, Flynn said.

Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy,
said the market around the Great Lakes was expected to jump.

“Great Lakes spot gasoline prices spiking on the BP
refinery fire overnight, could lead to prices cycling soon,” DeHaan posted
on X. “For now, wholesale prices pointing to about a 20 cent a gallon
rise.”

Limiting crude prices was the International Energy
Agency’s outlook for a growing supply glut in 2026. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration said on Thursday that U.S. crude inventories increased by 3.5
million barrels last week, to 423.8 million barrels, compared with analysts’
expectations in a Reuters poll for a 288,000-barrel rise.

(Reuters)

Only the headline is edited by Shafaq News Agency.