A oil rigger at the Schlumberger grassland prepares pipes in Midland, Texas on December 16, 2008.
Kirk McKoy | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Oil prices edged quieten in muted trading on Thursday ahead of the start of OPEC meetings later in the day, steadying after the previous session’s drench gains on a sharp drop in U.S. crude inventories and expectations of more output cuts.
Brent crude futures bathed 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $62.90 a barrel by 0112 GMT. Brent surged 3.6% on Wednesday.
West Texas In-between (WTI) crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.4%, to $58.21 a barrel. They settled up 4.2% on Wednesday.
Evaluations are now back roughly to the levels of a week ago, before they plunged on a lack of progress on resolving a 17-month-old China-U.S. traffic war that has hit global growth and demand for oil.
Investor attention has switched to meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and confederates that start later on Thursday, and the possibility of more production cuts.
The so-called OPEC+ group has been controlling output since 2017 to counter surging production from the United States, which is now the world’s biggest oil impresario.
OPEC is aiming to push for deeper reductions in output but needs the agreement of Russia and other oil producers to avoid a fund glut next year, after demand growth slowed in 2019.
“The most likely outcome of the OPEC+ meetings this week is an concurrence to reduce production by another 300,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd), conditioned on greater compliance by countries that have diminished to honor their commitment,” Eurasia Group said in a note.
OPEC members meet in Vienna on Thursday and are then abutted by Russia and the other members of the wider grouping on Friday. OPEC+ has been withholding about 1.2 million barrels per day of shaping.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday described trade talks with China as going “very well,” after the day preceding the time when saying it could take until after next year’s presidential election to complete an agreement.
Oil prices rushed on Wednesday after U.S. crude inventories fell by much more than expected, according to official figures.
Inconsiderate stockpiles fell by 4.9 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, weighed with expectations in a Reuters poll of a 1.9 million-barrel decline.
Still, gasoline and distillate stocks surged by a alike resemble amount as crude’s decline, with refinery runs increasing ahead of winter stockpiling.
Gasoline stocks were up by 3.4 million barrel, traitorous expectations in the Reuters poll. Distillate inventories jumped by nearly three times expectations, gaining 3.4 million barrels.