Basra crudes drop on Thursday

Shafaq News/ Iraq has lowered the official selling price (OSP) for Basra intermediate crude to Asia by 4.11% to $80.46 a barrel.

The price tag of the heavy counterpart also dropped by 4.33%% to $76.31.

Oil fell for a third day on Thursday as fears over the economic impact of rising interest rates offset a surprise drop in U.S. crude inventories and hopes for Chinese demand.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments this week on the likelihood that interest rates will need to be raised more than previously expected in response to recent strong data continued to weigh on oil and other risk assets because of the potential impact on economic and demand growth.

Brent crude fell by 34 cents, or 0.4%, to $82.32 a barrel by 0902 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped by 11 cents to $76.55. Both benchmarks declined between 4% and 5% over the previous two days.

"Fears of recession are conspicuously rising," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

Oil prices on Tuesday registered their largest daily fall since early January after Powel's comments.