Oil holds near $49 before OPEC meeting as Saudis consider deal
Oil held near $49 a barrel as OPEC ministers prepare to convene in Vienna amid speculation Saudi Arabia is considering a deal to mend divisions within the group.
Oil held near $49 a barrel as OPEC ministers prepare to convene in Vienna amid speculation Saudi Arabia is considering a deal to mend divisions within the group.
Oil prices have tumbled ahead of a crunch meeting between members of the Opec cartel, with hopes for an agreement to cut production fading.
Oil declined for a fourth day on concern recent gains were unsustainable, while shuttered Canadian operations started to reopen.
For more than two decades, the people of Vienna have witnessed a peculiar ritual that’s been a firm fixture of OPEC’s regular gathering: the Saudi oil minister’s morning stroll.
The global crude oversupply that has caused prices to slump since 2014 is correcting itself, the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday on arrival in Vienna ahead of an OPEC meeting this week.
In the rarefied world of oil macroeconomics there appears to be widespread - if grudging - admiration for Saudi Arabia's refusal to blink over its policy to continued high levels production as the oil price crashed.
Oil is set for the longest run of monthly gains in five years as output disruptions from Nigeria to Canada reduce supply before OPEC meets Thursday in Vienna to discuss production policy.
OPEC members gathering in Vienna June 2 are expected to go along with a Saudi Arabia-led policy focused on squeezing out rivals amid signs the strategy is working. That means the meeting may be less fraught than the previous summit in December, which ended with public criticism of the Saudi position from Venezuela and Iran.
Oil slid a third day as Canadian producers moved to resume output after wildfires and as OPEC delegates prepare to meet in Vienna to discuss production policy.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting with fellow OPEC members since the oil rout started two years ago.
The final preparatory gathering of officials from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries before the ministerial meeting on June 2 didn’t discuss any limits on crude output, the latest signal that the group will stick to its current strategy of letting low prices eradicate a supply glut.
Saudi Arabia, one of the founders of OPEC, is sounding the group’s death knell.
The United States produced more than twice the petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons as Saudi Arabia produced in 2015.
Iran, which is due to meet with OPEC partners on June 2, has no plan to join any freeze in crude output as the country won’t be done ramping up oil exports to pre-sanctions levels before the second half of the year, the head of the state oil company said.
OPEC’s strategy to defend market share over prices is working as oil approaches $50 a barrel amid rising demand and declining output from producers including U.S. shale companies, Kuwait’s acting oil minister said.
Oil advanced as Goldman Sachs said the market moved into a deficit earlier than expected and China’s refineries processed crude at record rates.
The global oil surplus in the first half of this year will probably be smaller than previously estimated because of robust demand in India and other emerging nations, the International Energy Agency said.
Global oil demand is catching up with supply and the market should see a “rebalancing” in the second half of the year as cheaper crude has forced some production to close, Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammad Al Sada said.
There are currently no proposals on the table for OPEC to revive limits on crude output at its June meeting after the failure of talks to freeze production last month, according to six delegates from the group.
A tanker with oil from eastern Libya returned with its cargo to the North African country after the United Nations blacklisted the shipment, amid an escalating struggle between the nation’s rival governments for control of its crude wealth.
An agreement on production levels by OPEC would have created only “psychological support” for the market, according to a top analyst.
As greater and greater detail emerges about the OPEC meeting in Doha this past weekend, only one fact seems to matter – there is no agreement to freeze production.
Venezuela has proposed non-OPEC members who participated in the recent Doha meeting attend the next one in June as observers.
Venezuela's oil minister has warned global oil stocks are almost full with the oil price likely to collapse if producers do not talk.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will resume talks at a meeting in June to reach an agreement on freezing oil output, Iraq’s governor to OPEC said just days after politics thwarted a deal to cap production and curb the global glut.