Oil drops below $100 on fears around demand

World oil prices fell below $100 per barrel on Wednesday morning on concerns about the Chinese economy and the demand outlook.

Report informs, citing trading data, that the price of September futures for Brent crude fell by 0.07% to $99.42 per barrel, and August futures for WTI dropped by 0.22% to $95.63.

Oil traders are assessing the outlook for demand as the coronavirus situation worsens in China. New outbreaks lead to tighter quarantine restrictions, which dampens expectations for the country's economy and increases fears about a possible recession in the world. A day earlier, against this backdrop, prices for Brent and WTI fell by about 7% and 8.5%, respectively.

Investors are also paying attention to API data on commercial oil inventories in the US over the past week. Thus, according to the Institute, stocks in the country for the week to July 8 jumped by 4.8 million barrels. Official statistics on US commercial inventories for the past week will be published by the country's Department of Energy on Wednesday evening. Analysts expect a decline of 0.2 million barrels.