Goli Innocent 
The Brent crude oil benchmark hovered above $80 a barrel on Thursday, with demand concerns and a waning war-risk premium having triggered a selloff over the past week.
Brent crude futures were up $1, or about 1.3%, at $80.54 a barrel by 1445 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.01, also about 1.3%, to $76.34.
The increase follows a dip in both benchmarks on Wednesday, the lowest since mid-July, as concerns grew about potential Middle East supply disruptions subsided and worries about demand from China and the United States intensified.
Brent has dropped by almost $20 a barrel since its peak in September.
John Evans of oil broker PVM said, “It might be that this near-oversold status is causing a hiatus in selling this morning.” Evans also mentioned that there wasn’t much good news overnight and that the previous week’s losses lessened the impact of the most recent Chinese data.
China’s data released on Thursday indicated that the nation’s policymakers continue to have difficulties in combating disinflation due to the country’s poor demand.
October saw a sharp decline in Chinese consumer prices as increasing factory-gate deflation raised worries about the likelihood of a broad-based economic recovery and important indicators of domestic demand indicated weakness not seen since the epidemic.
China’s total exports of goods and services fell more quickly than anticipated earlier in the week, according to customs data.
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Indicators of demand in the US aren’t very promising either. According to sources quoting data from the American Petroleum Institute, U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose by 11.9 million barrels during the week ending Nov. 3.
If verified, this would be the largest weekly build since February. However, in order to improve its system, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has postponed the publishing of weekly statistics on oil inventories until November 15.
Positively, there was optimism in global equities markets on Thursday due to the perception that major central banks had finished raising interest rates. The cost of borrowing is increased by high-interest rates, which reduces demand for all goods and services, including oil.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) and OPEC are scheduled to present their opinions on the fundamentals of oil supply and demand for the coming week.
Callum Macpherson, head of commodities at Investec, saw a worsening in the demand picture and stated that since last month’s reports, increased output is anticipated to emerge from Venezuela following the lifting of U.S. sanctions.
“There is a danger the market could be in a surplus next year even if the Saudis do extend their cuts beyond the end of December,” said the economist.
