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LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped more than 1 percent yesterday as signs of an economic slowdown amid international trade disputes began to outweigh supply fears stoked by attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week.

Brent futures were down 68 cents, or 1,1 percent, to $61,33 a barrel at 1140 GMT, having gained 1,1  on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 58 cents, or 1,1 percent, at $51,93, having firmed by 0,4 percent in the previous session.

“China’s industrial output growth (is) falling to the lowest level in 17 years amid trade tensions with the US Today, oil markets will have to digest more demand concerns as India implemented retaliatory tariffs on a number of US goods yesterday,” consultancy JBC Energy said in a note.

Also sapping prices was the dim outlook for oil demand growth in 2019 projected by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday, citing worsening prospects for global trade.

Market expectations of a price rise had been shrinking in the period leading up to the tanker attacks.

“Seven consecutive weeks of selling has now reduced the combined long in Brent and WTI crude oil by 41 percent to 421 000 lots, a near-four-month low,” said Saxo Bank commodity strategist Ole Hansen

“This is before the tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman briefly boosted prices before being capped again by demand fears and another counter-seasonal rise in US crude oil stocks.”

Though danger of an immediate confrontation over last week’s tanker attacks – which the United States blamed on Iran but Tehran denied — appeared to recede, tensions over the strategic route remain high. A fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. — Reuters.