Oil near six-and-a-half-year lows as China economy fears linger

Crude oil futures edged up on Wednesday, but were still not far off 6-1/2 year lows after China’s central bank moved to support the country’s stumbling economy, while concerns about a supply glut capped gains.

Asian stocks shook off early weakness to race higher on Wednesday, led by battered Chinese shares even as worries lingered on whether China’s actions would be enough to stabilise its cooling economy or halt a collapse in its stock markets.

Brent LCOc1 was trading 25 cents higher at $43.46 a barrel as of 0641 GMT, and U.S. October crude CLc1 was up 26 cents at $39.57 a barrel.

ANZ said China’s rate cuts had calmed commodity markets, but they remained cautious and gains would be limited.

“The displacement of high-cost supply from the United States is taking much longer than expected, and it’s likely to keep the market substantially oversupplied in the short term,” it said.

Daniel Ang, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures Pte Ltd, said China’s rate cut prevented oil prices from finding a new low.

U.S. crude stocks fell by 7.3 million barrels last week to 449.3 million, compared with analysts’ expectations for a rise of 1 million barrels as refinery runs increased, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.

Energy Information Administration data is due later on Wednesday.

“While the rate of global oil stock build is still set to decline, stocks will build for longer than initially anticipated,” BNP Paribas said late on Tuesday.

“As such, any price improvement will most likely take place from a lower starting point and the pace of any price improvement is likely to be slower than previously assumed.”

Macquarie noted a slowdown in auto sales which impact many commodities including oil in China and other emerging markets such as Russia, Indonesia, Brazil and Thailand.

“Industrial demand has struggled in many key emerging markets – this is perhaps best evidenced by auto sales, where the trend has continued to slide into mid-2015,” the bank said.

In China, car sales have fallen for four straight months, with the steepest month so far in July, at over 7 percent.

Iran will ramp up crude oil production and reclaim its lost share of exports shortly after international sanctions on the OPEC member are lifted, Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Tuesday, while Nigeria is also boosting exports.

Source: Reuters