09:18 AM EST, 11/12/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices rose early on Tuesday, rebounding from two losing sessions that pushed prices 6% lower, even after OPEC again lowered its demand forecast for this year and next.

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was last seen up US$0.54 to US$68.58 per barrel, while January Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up US$0.56 to US$72.39.

OPEC on Tuesday lowered its outlook for expected demand growth this year by 107,000-barrels per day to 1.8-million bpd and cut its 2025 demand-growth forecast by 103,000-bpd to 1.5-million bpd. In its November Monthly Oil Market Report, the group said it sees production growth from outside the cartel of 1.1-million bpd in 2025, even as it continues to sit on more than six-million bpd of quota reductions.

Oil markets also shrugged off news out of China, the No.1 importer, that demand remains weak as the country's economy struggles. A US$1.4-trillion stimulus package introduced last week to ease the debt load of local governments is being seen as offering little incentive to raise consumer spending, while inflation in October fell to a four-month low and factory-gate prices deflated, showing weak demand is likely to continue even as global oil production rises.

"For too long oil prices have relied upon geopolitical and weather events to relieve a growing concern of oversupply, the spectre of when OPEC+ might reintroduce shuttered barrels and the diminishing appetite for oil stuffs within China ... In a flat price environment that is stalled, supply and demand become even more magnified and at present it would appear that oil market participants do not like what they see," PVM Oil Associates noted.