Oil retreats on demand concerns after Fed signals slower easing ahead

Oil prices fell in Asian trade on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled it would slow the pace of interest rate cuts in 2025, which could slow economic growth and reduce fuel demand.

Brent futures fell 47 cents, or 0.6%, to USD 72.92 a barrel by 0515 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 39 cents, or 0.6%, to USD 70.19.

The declines reversed most of the benchmark contracts' gains from Wednesday, when prices settled higher as U.S. crude stocks fell and the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points as expected.

Prices weakened after U.S. central bankers issued projections calling for two quarter-point interest rate cuts in 2025 on concerns about rising inflation. That was half a point less than they had anticipated as of September.

Lower rates decrease borrowing costs, which can boost economic growth and demand for oil.

"The demand-supply balance going into 2025 continues to look unfavourable and predictions of more than 1.0 million bpd demand growth in 2025 look stretched in our opinion. Even if OPEC+ continues to withhold production, the market may still be in surplus," DBS Bank's energy sector team lead Suvro Sarkar said.

Meanwhile, although demand in the first half of December rose year-on-year, volumes remained lower than expected by some analysts.

JP Morgan analysts said in a note that global oil demand growth for December so far was 700,000 barrels per day less than it had expected, and for the year-to-date, global demand had risen by 200,000 bpd less than it had forecast in November 2023.

Official data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed U.S. crude stocks fell by 934,000 barrels in the week to Dec. 13, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.6 million-barrel draw.

While the drawdown was less than expected, the market found support in the data as U.S. crude exports rose by 1.8 million bpd last week to 4.89 million bpd.