Brent dips near $80 ahead of OPEC+ meet

LONDON: Oil prices fell on Monday, with the Brent benchmark dropping near $80 a barrel as investors awaited this week’s OPEC+ meeting and expected curbs on supplies into 2024, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures were down 35 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $80.23 a barrel by 1447 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 29 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $75.25.

Both contracts lost $1 in early trading, after having registered their fifth weekly decline in a row last week.

Prices tumbled midweek when OPEC+ - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia - postponed to Nov. 30 a ministerial meeting to iron out differences on production targets for African producers. Since then the group, helmed by de facto leader Saudi Arabia, has moved closer to a compromise, four OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Friday.

OPEC+ is still negotiating ahead of an oil policy meeting on Thursday, sources said on Monday. ING analysts said market sentiment remains negative given the dispute within OPEC+ over production quotas, though they expect Saudi Arabia to roll over its additional voluntary cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) into next year, and Russia to extend its own cuts.

“Clearly, if we do not see this, it would put further downward pressure on the market,” ING analysts said in a note. Estimated exports by OPEC countries have declined to 1.3 mn bpd below levels in April, Goldman Sachs analysts said.