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Thursday
05 Dec 2019

Crude Oil Futures in Consolidation Mode as Markets Await OPEC Meet

05 Dec 2019  by Avantika Ramesh   
Singapore — Crude oil futures were marginally lower during morning trade in Asia on Thursday amid some profit-taking after gaining more than $2/b during Wednesday's trading session, as markets await the outcome of the OPEC meet in Vienna.

At 10:59 am Singapore time (0259 GMT), ICE February Brent crude futures inched 7 cents/b (0.11%) lower from Wednesday's settle to $62.93/b, while the front-month NYMEX January light sweet crude contract moved 23 cents/b (0.39%) lower to $58.2/b.

Reports that Iraq was pushing for deeper OPEC+ production cuts emerged on Wednesday, pushing both the benchmark contracts up by more than $2/b.

OPEC and OPEC+ meetings are scheduled in Vienna Thursday and Friday, where the current 1.2 million b/d production cut agreement, which runs through March, is being discussed.

"With a tricky OPEC meeting set to kick off, today [Thursday], traders will be on the dual headline with one eye on OPEC and the other on trade talks," said Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader.

"I think an extension of the existing OPEC+ agreement and stricter enforcement of compliance would be the bare minimum to expect, but the real debate is on whether deeper cuts will be announced," he added.

Any announcement that does not include deeper cuts could disappoint the market, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

A combination of supply-side pressure and demand uncertainty will trouble OPEC well into 2020, the International Energy Agency's chief oil analyst told Platts in an interview.

The challenge facing OPEC ministers is the big wave of supply growth from non-OPEC countries hitting the market already, and going into 2020 supply is going to continue to grow from the US, although there is some debate as to how high that will be, Neil Atkinson, the IEA's head of oil industry and market division, said Tuesday at an event in London.

Elsewhere, according to data released by the US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, US crude inventory for the week ended November 29 fell 4.86 million barrels, a larger than expected draw.

Analysts polled by Platts were looking on average for crude stocks to decline by 700,000 barrels for the same period.

As of 0259 GMT, the US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 97.53.

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