oil futures moved lower on wednesday with us prices at their lowest since january pressured by concerns that further interestrate hikes by the federal reserve and a drop in chinas oil imports suggest a slowdown in energy demand prices gave up earlier gains on the back of a threat from russian president vladimir putin to cut off energy supplies if price caps are placed on the countrys oil and gas exports oil prices started coming unraveled after the wall street journal reported that the federal reserve more than likely is going to raise interest rates by 75 basis points at the next meeting said phil flynn senior market analyst at the price futures group efforts by the fed to tame inflation have fed concerns over a recession which could hurt demand for oil there seems to be a lot of liquidation on fears that the economy is going to take a turn for the worse said flynn there are also whisper numbers that we should see an increase in oil supplies in this weeks inventory report after the big release from the strategic petroleum reserve on average however analysts expect the energy information administration on thursday to report a decline of 18 million barrels in us crude supplies for the week ended sept 2 according to a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights the survey also showed expectations for weekly inventory declines of 15 million barrels for gasoline and 11 million barrels for distillates the data come out a day later than usual because of mondays labor day holiday separately in a monthly report released wednesday the eia lifted its 2023 price forecasts for wti and brent oil as well as us natural gas there are also concerns about slow demand from china flynn said customs data wednesday showed that chinas crude oil imports in august fell 94 from a year earlier according to reuters it seems like a lot of traders are bailing on oil at this point said flynn its a focus more on insurance about an economic slowdown as opposed to the current tight supply situation oil futures have retreated sharply from early march levels when crude traded at roughly 14year highs following russias late february invasion of ukraine crude has given back all of the postinvasion gains with weakness tied to worries over the demand outlook as major central banks aggressively tighten monetary policy and china continues to impose major lockdowns as part of its zerocovid policy the market may be concerned that strong monetary tightening in the eurozone and the united states could lead these economies to a significant slowdown in economic growth which could also lead to a decline in demand after the summer driving season said daniel kostecki senior financial analyst at conotoxia ltd in emailed comments meanwhile putin speaking at a conference in vladivostok said russia would walk away from energy contracts if the group of seven industrialized nations follows through on a plan to cap prices on russian oil as part of an effort to limit moscows ability to fund its invasion of ukraine g7 finance ministers on friday pledged to put in place a system designed to cap russias income from oil sales an idea that the nations leaders had promised to explore at their summit in june the aim is to reduce russias revenues and by doing so its ability to continue its war in ukraine while also limiting the impact of the war on global energy prices we will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests putin said according to reuters we will not supply gas oil coal heating oil  we will not supply anything the associated press contributed to this report hear from top wall street energy analysts at the best new ideas in money festival on sept 21 and sept 22 in new york rbcs helima croft will be there