Oil dips amid stock market slide, traders await OPEC meeting
SINGAPORE: Oil prices dipped on Thursday as stock markets slid and as traders eyed an OPEC meeting expected to result in a supply cut aimed at draining a glut that has pulled down crude by 30 per cent since October.
International Brent crude oil futures LCOC1 were at $61.35 per barrel at 07:47 GMT, down 21 cents, or 0.3 per cent from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLC1 were at $53.17 per barrel, down 28 cents, or 0.5 per cent.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is meeting at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday to decide its production policy in coordination with NON-OPEC producer Russia.
Expectations are for a supply cut between OPEC and Russia to be agreed between 1 and 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
Led by Saudi Arabia, OPEC’S crude oil production has risen by 4.1 per cent since mid-2018, to 33.31 million bpd.
Oil output from the world’s biggest producers — OPEC, Russia and the United States — has increased by a 3.3 million bpd since the end of 2017, to 56.38 million bpd, meeting almost 60 per cent of global consumption.
The increase alone is equivalent to the output of major OPEC producer United Arab Emirates.
Traders said oil prices were also being weighed down by weak global financial markets, which saw stock markets tumble on Thursday.
World stocks hit by Wall Street, US yield curve double whammy
Barclays bank said in its Global Outlook published on Thursday that “investors need to lower their expectations” and that “2019 should be a period of lower returns and higher volatility”.