Oil prices flatline as 2024 draws to a close

Crude oil prices started the last week of this year with a modest gain in anticipation of the last economic reports for the year from the United States and China, but prices quickly reverted back to where they had started.

Brent crude was trading at $74.00 per barrel at the time of writing, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was changing hands for $70.42 per barrel, both only slightly down from Friday’s close. Both benchmarks are set to end the year pretty much where they started it, with Brent crude set for a more noticeable decline than WTI, with the difference roughly at $3 per barrel.

Today’s weak price movement follows a week of gains for the benchmark on some new optimism about China and its oil demand prospects, despite two recent bearish forecasts from CNPC and Sinopec, which both expect oil demand to peak soon in the world’s biggest importer. This appears to be a consequence of the fact that despite China’s perceived demand weakness, the world has continued to consume growing volumes of crude oil.

“Global oil consumption reached an all-time high in 2024 despite China underperforming expectations, and oil stockpiles are heading into next year at relatively low levels,” Ryan Fitzmaurice, senior commodity strategist at UK-based financial services provider Marex, told Reuters.

“Going forward, China economic data is expected to improve as the recent stimulus measures take hold in 2025. Also, lower rates in the U.S. and elsewhere should be supportive of oil consumption,” Fitzmaurice added.

Rapidan Energy, meanwhile, has warned that the supply risk in the Middle East has increased and might potentially lead to disruptions. “Phase one post-Oct. 7 was Gaza, and phase two was Hezbollah, neither of which threatened oil,” Rapidan’s president, Bob McNally, told Bloomberg, referring to Israel’s war with its neighbors. “Now, we are moving to the Houthis, who threatened Saudi Arabia.”