Oil prices fell, with Brent crude down 1.7% to $87.44 and WTI crude down 1.9% to $81.66, due to a weak demand outlook and a significant increase in US crude inventories.

Oil prices fell on Thursday, with Brent crude futures closing down 1.7% at $87.44 per barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures closing down 1.9% at $81.66 per barrel. The main reasons were investors assessing a weak global demand outlook and a significant increase in U.S. crude oil inventories. OPEC, in its monthly oil market report, lowered its global oil demand growth forecast for 2026 to 580,000 barrels per day. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 17.4 million barrels to 424.4 million barrels in the week ending August 7, the largest weekly increase since January 2023, far exceeding analysts' expectations of a 1.4 million barrel decrease. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects global oil consumption to contract by 1.6 million barrels per day this year, higher than last month's forecast of 1 million barrels per day, citing high oil prices and supply constraints due to the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran.