Oil maintained a five-day losing streak, its longest losing streak since January, as investors looked beyond US efforts to punish buyers of Russian crude, while following President Donald Trump's diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine.

West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed at just under $65 a barrel after dropping to its lowest closing level since early June, while Brent closed just below $67. On Wednesday, Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50% due to the country's purchases of Russian energy, with the tariffs set to take effect in three weeks. However, no similar US action has been taken against China, another major importer of Moscow's oil.

On the diplomatic front, Trump said there was a "high probability" he would soon meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in another effort to broker peace between the two countries. He also said there would be "more" penalties related to Russian oil purchases, without providing further details.

Crude oil prices have fallen sharply so far in August after posting three consecutive months of gains. Traders are positioning for a potential oversupply later this year after OPEC+ returns millions of barrels of shut-in capacity to the market. Furthermore, there are concerns about slowing economic growth and the potential weakening of energy consumption due to the negative impact of Trump's broader trade tariffs. (alg)

Source: Bloomberg