Oil Continues to Decline as OPEC+ Considers Increasing Production
Global oil markets witnessed a decline today, Thursday, September 4, for the second consecutive session, amid a state of anticipation among investors for the upcoming meeting of the OPEC+ alliance scheduled for early next week, and what decisions may arise regarding supplies.
Trading data showed a decrease in the price of Brent crude by 0.6% to reach $67.17 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude fell by the same percentage, recording $63.53 per barrel, after both grades had recorded a sharp decline of over 2% during the previous day's trading.
This performance comes as the market focuses on the OPEC+ meeting next Sunday. In this regard, two informed sources told Reuters that eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, within the OPEC+ alliance, will discuss the possibility of increasing production for October at the meeting next Sunday, as part of the group's efforts to enhance its market share.
For his part, prominent analyst at Price Futures, Phil Flynn, commented on these expectations, stating that the likelihood of OPEC+ approving a new increase in production has risen ahead of the meeting, after traders had expected to maintain the production policy unchanged.
It is worth noting that the alliance had already agreed to raise production targets by about 2.2 million barrels per day between April and September, along with an additional increase of 300,000 barrels per day for the UAE.
Meanwhile, traders are also looking towards the official U.S. data on crude inventories, which is scheduled to be released today, Thursday, after being postponed by one day due to a public holiday in the United States.
Preliminary data released by the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday indicated an increase in inventories by 622,000 barrels in the week ending August 29, which contrasts with analysts' expectations surveyed by Reuters, who predicted a decline of two million barrels on average.
