Oil Updates — Crude slips; Oil tanker groups Frontline and Euronav scrap $4.2bn merger

Oil Updates — Crude slips; Oil tanker groups Frontline and Euronav scrap $4.2bn merger

RIYADH: Oil edged lower on Tuesday on expectations that further interest rate hikes in the US, the world’s biggest oil user, will slow economic growth and limit fuel demand. Brent futures for March delivery fell 43 cents to $79.22 a barrel, a 0.54 percent drop, by 8.55 a.m. Saudi time. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 34 cents, or 0.46 percent, to $74.29 per barrel. Both benchmarks climbed 1 percent on Monday after China, the world’s biggest oil importer and second-largest consumer, opened its borders over the weekend for the first time in three years. China issued a second batch of 2023 crude oil import quotas, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter and documents reviewed by Reuters on Monday, raising the total for this year by 20 percent compared to the same time last year. According to the document from the Ministry of Commerce, 44 companies, mostly independent refiners, were given 111.82 million tons in import quotas in this round. Combined with the 20 million tons in 2023 quotas granted to 21 refineries in October, it takes the total for this year to 131.82 million tons. China, the world’s biggest oil importer, allocated some 2023 quotas earlier