Oil prices fall owing to fears of a recession, while China's imports gradually increase

Oil prices remained at multi-month lows on Monday, as fears of a recession reduced demand expectations and data suggested a steady increase in China's oil imports last month.

At 00:39 GMT, Brent oil futures slipped 74 cents, or 0.8 percent , to $94.18 a barrel. Last week, front-month prices reached their lowest level since February, plummeting 13.7% and recording their largest weekly decrease since April 2020.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was priced at $88.34 a barrel, a decrease of 67 cents, or 0.8%, extending losses from the previous week's 9.7% drop.

China, the world's top oil importer, imported 8.79 million barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum in July, up from a four-year low in June but still 9.5% lower than a year earlier, according to customs data.

In reaction to high oil prices and low local profits, Chinese refiners cut their stockpiles even as the nation's exports climbed overall.

ANZ lowered its oil demand forecasts for 2022 and 2023 by 300,000 bpd and 500,000 bpd, respectively, due to a decrease in U.S. gasoline consumption and China's zero-COVID strategy, which delayed recovery.

The bank forecasts that oil consumption would climb by 1.8 million barrels per day in 2022 and settle at 99.7 million barrels per day, just short of pre-pandemic highs.

Despite the impending embargo from the European Union, which will go into force on December 5, exports of crude and oil products from Russia continued.

Last week, energy companies in the United States cut the number of oil rigs by the greatest amount since September, marking the first reduction in 10 weeks.

Sunday, the U.S. Senate backed a $430 billion plan to address climate change and other issues, providing a boost to the renewable energy industry.