Oil rises over 1% after OPEC+ agrees to 1 million bpd supply cut; Brent reaches $84/bbl
Oil prices rose by more than 1 per cent on Thursday, November 30 as the The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) agreed to make 1 million barrels a day of additional oil-supply cuts to go alongside Saudi Arabia’s much-anticipated extension of a voluntary reduction of the same size.
Brent crude futures for January gained 91 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $84.01 a barrel. The front-month Brent contract expires later on Thursday. The more liquid February contract was up 83 cents, or 1 per cent, at $83.71. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose by 81 cents, or about 1 per cent, to $78.67, according to news agency Reuters.
Back home, on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), crude oil futures due for a December 18 expiry, was last trading lower by 0.89 per cent at ₹6,430 per bbl, having swung between ₹6,409 and ₹6,644 per bbl during the session so far, against a previous close of ₹6,488 per barrel.
MORE TO COME
Where are prices headed?
Crude oil extended gains ahead of the OPEC+ meetings on hopes members would agree on output cuts to stabilize global oil prices. Crude oil prices also recovered after a better than expected US third quarter GDP data. The US GDP grew 5.2 per cent in the third quarter against previous estimates of 4.9 per cent.
However, an increase in the US crude oil inventories limited gains. As per official data, crude oil inventories build up of 1.6 million barrels in the last week was against expectations of a draw of 0.1 million barrels, said analysts.
‘’We expect crude oil prices to remain volatile this week amid volatility in the dollar index and OPEC+ meetings. Crude oil is having support at $76.85–76.10 and resistance is at $78.50-79.20. In INR crude oil has support at ₹6,390-6,320 while resistance is at ₹6,580-6,640,” said Rahul Kalantri, VP Commodities, Mehta Equities Ltd.
