Commodities: Energy futures down after Saudi predicts return to pre-attack level in October

Energy futures continued to drag the complex lower on Wednesday after Saudi said that the majority of output of crude oil lost in the previous weekend's attacks on the kingdom's energy infrastructure should be back on-line by the end of September.

Saudi Aramco boss, Amin Nasser, said that the key Abqaiq crude oil processing facility was processing roughly 2.0m barrels a day and should be back at pre-attack levels of 4.9m b/d by the end of September.

Full output capacity of 12.0m b/d would only be available by end-November but Saudi Aramco was targeting returning to pre-attack levels of production of 9.8m barrels in October.

Against that backdrop, as of 1859 BST front month West Texas crude oil futures were down by 1.80% at $58.27 a barrel on NYMEX.

In the background, the US dollar index was higher by just 0.05% to 98.3070 - albeit off its intraday highs - while the Bloomberg commodity index was down by 0.54% to 79.47.

Copper futures extended the previous session's losses, with December copper dipping by 0.48% to $2.6145 a pound.

Corn futures on the other hand found a small bid, with December corn on CBoT adding 0.68% to $3.7050 a bushel and similarly-dated wheat rising by 1.29% to $4.9050.