Brent falls to $93.65, lowest since August 31

Summary

• Brent fell 1.03% to $93.65 a barrel Thursday, a fourth straight daily decline.
• Both Brent and WTI plunged more than 8% in the previous session.
• Crude below $100 squeezes Gulf export revenues during budget-drafting season.

The latest

Brent crude slid to $93.65 a barrel on Thursday, its fourth consecutive day of losses and its weakest level since the end of August. The drop followed a brutal previous session in which both international and US benchmarks collapsed by more than 8%, according to the Saudi Press Agency. US West Texas Intermediate also fell, to $86.98.

Details

• The numbers: Brent futures lost 97 cents, or 1.03%, to $93.65 a barrel by 02:11 GMT Thursday, according to the Saudi Press Agency. West Texas Intermediate futures fell further in percentage terms, down $1.14 or 1.29% to $86.98 a barrel at the same point in the session.
• The streak: Thursday marked the fourth straight session of declines for crude, extending a run of losses that has carried Brent from above the $100 mark down into the mid-$90s. The agency did not identify any driver behind the four-day slide.
• Previous session: Both benchmarks plunged by more than 8% in the prior session, one of the sharpest single-day moves of the year. At settlement, each closed at its lowest level since August 31, erasing weeks of gains in a matter of hours.
• The spread: The gap between Brent and WTI stood at roughly $6.67 a barrel at the quoted times, with the US benchmark declining faster in percentage terms on Thursday. That differential shapes the economics of American crude exports to buyers in Europe and Asia.
• Where it was priced: The quotes were reported out of Singapore, one of the main Asian trading hubs where overnight moves in crude are first registered before European and US markets open.
• The $100 line: Brent has now moved decisively below the $100 threshold, a psychological marker closely tracked by producers and importers alike. The round number carries outsized weight in revenue planning for exporting states.
• Gulf exposure: Oil-dependent Gulf budgets are built around assumed barrel prices, and a sustained move into the low $90s narrows the cushion between the assumed price and the market price. The decline lands during the period when annual budgets are being drafted.
• No stated cause: The Saudi Press Agency reported the price levels, the four-day streak and the August 31 comparison without attributing the sell-off to any supply, demand or geopolitical development.
• Second agency: The Emirates News Agency reported the same figures, including the $93.65 Brent level, under the same dating.

Between the lines

A single session erasing more than 8% is a repricing, not a drift. With both benchmarks settling at their lowest since August 31 and the slide now in its fourth day, the move has already undone the summer's gains — and no driver has been publicly identified to explain whether the floor has been found.

What's next

Watch whether Brent holds above $90 or extends a fifth session of losses, and whether Gulf finance ministries revise the assumed barrel price in budgets now being drafted.

Source: Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Emirates News Agency (WAM)