Oil price slipped on Tuesday

International benchmarks for oil prices breach below $40/barrel for the first time since April 2016 on Tuesday (2 August) as investor fear weekly US commercial crude data would show increases. Refiners in US and Asia are about to enter the maintenance season, in which less crude is required. Meanwhile, Libya is getting ready to return to the export market and production output from OPEC remains near record high levels. Crude flows will have nowhere to go if buying activities from refineries slow down, analysts said.

WTI closed at $39.51/barrel (-$0.55) September delivery

Brent closed at $41.80/barrel (-$0.34) September delivery