OPEC and its allies once again stood back from the crisis engulfing oil markets, refusing to deviate from their schedule of gradual production increases as the U.S. considered an unprecedented release from emergency crude stockpiles.
OPEC and its allies recommended proceeding with plans to gently revive oil production as global demand recovers from the pandemic, despite surging infections in India.
Oil fell after OPEC+ decided to increase output from next month and coronavirus cases in India surged, potentially sapping demand in the world’s third-biggest importer.
OPEC+ agreed to increase oil production gradually from May to July, responding to both internal and external pressure to supply more crude to the recovering global economy.
Oil pared an earlier increase in New York ahead of a high-stakes OPEC+ policy meeting, with producers debating whether to extend deep supply curbs or ease them.
A panel of OPEC+ technical experts agreed to revise down oil-demand estimates for 2021 after Saudi Arabia suggested that the figure looked too high, delegates said.
Iraq said the OPEC+ oil cartel is unlikely to change its production policy at next month’s meeting and repeated promises to deliver overdue output cuts, even as the Arab nation’s economy reels.
Iran has started ramping up its oil production and expects to reach pre-sanctions levels in one to two months, Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia said.
Oil steadied in Asia after surging to a 10-month high on Saudi Arabia’s pledge to cut an extra 1 million barrels a day of crude output in February and March as a rampant coronavirus leads to more lockdowns.
Denmark will stop offering new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea and will phase out production all together in 2050 as part of the country’s goal to become fossil free.
Oil markets could be saturated with millions of surplus barrels if OPEC+ fails to agree an extension to current production cuts, according to analysis from Rystad Energy.
By Javier Blas, Dina Khrennikova, Grant Smith and Salma El Wardany, Bloomberg
OPEC+ began two days of potentially complicated talks to hash out the size of its oil-production cuts next year, with the group’s president calling for caution in a fragile market.
Fields responsible for the bulk of Libya’s oil exports will be forced to halt production within a month unless a blockade is lifted on the port of Marsa el-Hariga, according to the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp.
Chevron reported a loss that was double analysts’ estimates amid an oil-market collapse that’s sparked currency crises, corporate bankruptcies, credit downgrades and hundreds of thousands of layoffs across the industry.