Oil extended losses as Saudi Arabia was said to be ahead of schedule in restoring its output capacity.
Futures lost as much as 1.5% in New York after dropping 2.3% on Tuesday. Saudi Aramco’s production capacity now exceeds 11 million barrels a day, beating a self-imposed deadline by about a week, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The Abqaiq processing plant has 4.92 million barrels a day of capacity available and Khurais 1.3 million, they said.
Aerial strikes on the two plants on Sept. 14 disabled 5% of global crude supply, driving crude higher by the most on record. Prices have pulled back since as Aramco – formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Co – has promised it will return all lost production by the end of this month. A gloomy global economic outlook and weakening oil demand growth has also pushed oil lower.
West Texas Intermediate for November delivery dropped 79 cents, or 1.4%, to $56.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 9:18 a.m. London time. Brent for November slipped $1.04, or 1.7%, to $62.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, and traded at a $5.53 premium to WTI.
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