At 5.25 pm, the September contract of Brent on the Intercontinental Exchange was trading at $81.40 per barrel, higher by 0.05% from its previous close. The August contract of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was just 0.01% higher at $76.90 a barrel.

Prices had risen on Thursday for the third consecutive session, after some oilfields in Libya were shut down due to protest against a reported kidnapping of a former minister.

Ravindra V Rao, head of commodity research at Kotak Securities Ltd said: “Libya’s second- biggest oil field is in the process of shutting due to protests, while there’s also a production halt in Nigeria, at a time when Russian flows are finally starting to ease.”

Further the prices traded on subdued note on Friday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the global demand this year will not grow as fast as previously projected. The agency however, sees record demand of 102.1 million barrels per day in 2023.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expects an even tighter global oil market next year. As per OPEC’s estimates global oil consumption will climb by 2.2 mbpd to reach 104.3 mbpd in 2024.

Rao added that oil prices might take a breather after the one-sided rally since late June.

Flows to India fell the most, by 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) on the month, while crude exports to China slipped by 150,000 bpd, the data showed.

However, shipments rose to some other destinations, with flows to Egypt at 175,000 bpd in June and ship-to-ship transfers off Greece growing to 150,000 bpd, the highest since February, the report said.

Russia-origin Seaborne Crude shipments averaged 3.46 million b/d in June, the lowest since February but still 12% above average pre-war levels of 3.1 million bpd, the data showed.

Updated: 14 Jul 2023, 06:28 PM IST