Oil slips on China demand fears, supply worries limit lossesCrude prices eased to around $112 per barrel on Monday after rising sharply in early trade, with oil contracts trading within a $3 range – between about $111 and $114 a barrel.On Monday, the pull and push in oil prices were driven by supply news. While tight global supply concerns and the deepening Ukraine crisis pushed crude prices higher, worries of slowing demand in China pulled them lower.The international benchmark, Brent crude, was the last trading about 30 cents higher at nearly $112 per barrel, after having risen to the highest since March 30 of $113.80 earlier in the session. US crude futures were flat at about $107 per barrel.Slowing Chinese economic growth was the primary reason for oil prices to slip late in the session, with data showing China refined 2 per cent less oil in March than a year earlier, with the output falling to the lowest since October.But adding to the supply concerns was news that Libya had halted production from its El Feel oilfield on Sunday and warned that “a painful wave of closures” had begun hitting its facilities.In addition, the decline in Russian oil production – by 7.5 per cent in the first half of April from March, as reported by Interfax on Friday, and the European Union looking to ban crude from Moscow has weighed on oil markets.”With global supplies now so tight, even the most minor disruption is likely to have an outsized impact on prices,” Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at brokerage OANDA told Reuters.
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