After falling by more than $2 per barrel on the previous trading day, Brent crude oil futures continued their downward trend in early Asian trading today.

As of 12:00 Beijing time, the Brent crude oil futures contract for October was priced at $77.03 per barrel, down 63 cents/barrel from the settlement price on August 19th, and the contract closed down $2.02/barrel that day.

The WTI crude oil futures contract for September was priced at $73.69 per barrel, down 68 cents/barrel from the settlement price on August 19th, and the contract closed down $2.28/barrel that day.

China's crude oil processing is expected to rebound this month due to rising profits. However, domestic crude oil processing still faces pressure due to continued weak downstream consumption and uncertainty in export quotas. Traders expect that some Chinese state-owned refineries may slightly increase crude oil processing this month to meet the upcoming outdoor construction season and expect Beijing to announce new oil product export quotas in September. However, most traders believe that this year's crude oil processing is unlikely to see significant growth due to declining domestic consumption, especially the increase in new energy vehicles and slowing economic growth.

Traders said that due to the end of maintenance and summer peak fuel consumption, Russia's largest oil company may reduce crude oil transportation to its refineries in September. Lukoil may reduce delivery to its refineries by 2,000 tons/day, and crude oil transportation to Russian oil company refineries is expected to decrease by 17,000 tons/day. Gazprom Neft is expected to receive 6,900 tons/day less crude oil than last month.

Guyana has canceled plans to build and operate a privately owned refinery with a daily processing capacity of 0.03 million barrels at the mouth of the Berbice River. The project was cancelled due to the shallow waters around the proposed site, but the government will propose a larger project elsewhere later. Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said the government will consider building a facility with a daily processing capacity of 0.1 million barrels at another location.

According to operating reports seen by Argus, crude oil production from Waha Oil's oilfield operated by the upstream company in Libya has been restored to about 0.28 million barrels/day after the repair of a damaged pipeline. Previously, due to an accidental fire in a pipeline connecting its oilfield and Es Sider export terminal, the company's production had temporarily dropped to 0.191 million barrels/day.

(The above content is from Argus, an independent international energy and commodity price assessment agency)