Crude oil futures slide on supply builds, demand concerns

Crude oil futures were lower in mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday, amid higher US inventories and lurking concerns of poor demand as the coronavirus outbreak continued to spread.

At 10:48 am Singapore time (0248 GMT), March ICE Brent crude futures fell 55 cents/b (0.92%) from Wednesday's settle at $59.26/b, while the NYMEX March light sweet crude contract fell 47 cents/b (0.88%) at $52.86/b.

Total US crude inventories rose 3.54 million barrels to 431.65 million barrels during the week ended January 24, US Energy Information Administration

data showed late Wednesday.

The increase was larger than the 1.4 million-barrel build that analysts expected in an S&P Global Platts survey earlier Monday.

Prices were also bearish as worries remain around the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on demand, analysts at UOB said in a note Thursday.

Talk of OPEC potentially extending oil production cuts could limit the downside for now, the analysts at UOB added.

OPEC and 10 allies agreed in December to implement 1.7 million b/d of production cuts for the first three months of 2020 and to meet March 5-6 in Vienna to decide on any next steps.

There were signs that OPEC may move to cut production further to offset demand concerns stemming from the further spread of coronavirus in China.

The market remained vigilant on further coronavirus developments as this could potentially have an adverse impact on overall economic growth.

Demand for jet fuel could particularly take a hit as airlines were curtailing flights into and out of China.

As of 0248 GMT, the US Dollar Index fell 0.03% to 97.865.