Investing.com - Crude oil prices held weaker in Asia on Tuesday with worries over global demand stoked by a possible exit of the U.K. from the European Union.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for July delivery dropped 1.10% to $48.34 a barrel. On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Brent crude dropped 0.99% to $49.85 a barrel.
Later Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will release estimates of crude and refined product stocks at the end of last week. The figures will be followed on Wednesday with more closely-watched data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Commodity traders await a highly-anticipated interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday afternoon. While the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is not expected to raise short-term interest rates at the meeting, Fed chair Janet Yellen could provide clues on whether the U.S. central bank could lift rates before the end of the fall.
Investors continued to closely monitor Brexit polls in the U.K. after a YouGov poll showed that the "Leave," campaign overtook the "Stay" campaign in the latest survey, reversing a narrow lead from a poll last week.
Overnight, crude futures fell slightly on Monday, extending losses from late last week, as OPEC left its world oil demand growth forecasts unchanged amid further evidence of declines in Chinese crude imports.
On Monday, OPEC left its 2016 global oil demand growth forecast unchanged at 1.20 million barrels per day to 94.18 million, amid increases in India.
It came as China refinery output fell to 10.46 million bpd, its lowest daily average since last September. At the same time, oil imports in China declined to four-month lows, amid signals that demand could level off over the next several months.
Meanwhile, OPEC supply growth estimates also remained steady at a contraction of 0.74 million bpd, totaling 56.40 million bpd for the year. OPEC expects downward revisions in Canada, Brazil and Colombia to offset gains in the U.S., U.K., Russia and Azerbaijan. In terms of OPEC demand, the 13-nation group left it unchanged at 31.5 million bpd, up 1.8 million bpd from the same month last year.
Also, money managers raised their bullish bets on futures and options in the middle of May to record-high levels, before unloading their net long positions in the final week of the month as futures prices approached $50 a barrels, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report.
In total, OPEC production fell by 100,000 bpd to 32.361 million bpd, as a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria by 231,000 bpd. Slight increases from Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia were offset by declines in Venezuela and Iraq. For the month, Saudi output rose by 84,000 bpd to 10.241 million bpd.