Oil edges lower

TOKYO. — Oil prices edged lower yesterday after the IMF lowered its global growth forecasts but prices were supported as Hurricane Michael churned toward Florida, causing the shutdown of nearly 40 percent of US Gulf of Mexico crude output.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures were down 21 cents at $84,79 a barrel by 0434 GMT, after a 1,3 percent gain on Tuesday.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was down by 34 cents, or 0,5 percent, at $74,62 a barrel, after rising nearly 1 percent in the previous session.

The International Monetary Fund downgraded its global economic growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 on Tuesday, raising concerns that demand for oil products may slump as well.

Trade tensions and rising import tariffs were taking a toll on commerce, while emerging markets struggle with tighter financial conditions and capital outflows, the IMF said.

“Prices are peaking at the most opportunistic time given waning global growth narrative,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading APAC at OANDA in Singapore.

In the United States, nearly 40 percent of daily crude oil production was lost from offshore US Gulf of Mexico wells on Tuesday because of platform evacuations and shut-ins ahead of Hurricane Michael.

Oil producers evacuated personnel from 75 platforms as the storm made its way through the central Gulf on the way to landfall on Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle.

The country’s largest privately owned crude terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC, said late on Tuesday it had halted operations at its marine terminal.

The facility is the only U.S. port able to fully load and unload tankers with a capacity of 2 million barrels of oil. — Reuters.