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Oil rates blended as increasing Mideast stress balance out need concerns

Oil costs were blended in early Asia trade on Monday as issues over weak Chinese demand were offset by increasing tensions in the Middle East following the rebel overthrow of Syrian President Bashar alAssad.

Brent crude futures fell by 1 cent to $71.11 per barrel by 1117 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate unrefined futures rose by 1 cent to $67.21 per barrel.

Brent lost more than 2.5% last week, while WTI saw a drop of 1.2% as analysts forecasted a supply surplus next year on weak demand in spite of an OPEC+ choice to postpone output hikes and extend deep production cuts to the end of 2026.

Saudi Aramco, the world's most significant petroleum exporter, has decreased its January 2025 costs for Asian buyers to the lowest level since early 2021, it stated on Sunday, as weak need from leading importer China weighs on the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels revealed on state tv on Sunday they have ousted President al-Assad, getting rid of a. 50-year household dynasty in a lightning offensive that raised. worries of a new age of instability in a Middle East grasped by. war.

On the supply side, an increasing variety of oil and gas rigs. deployed in the United States last week, pointing to increasing. output from the world's most significant crude manufacturer, likewise pushed. costs lower.

On Thursday, the Company of the Petroleum Exporting. Nations and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, pressed back. the start of oil output increases by three months up until April and. extended the full unwinding of cuts by a year till the end of. 2026.

(source: Reuters)