Oil slides with U.S. stocks as OPEC+ delays output decision
Oil prices slipped from multi-month highs to end more than 1% lower on the first trading day of the year after OPEC+ failed to decide on Monday whether to increase output in February and agreed to meet again on Tuesday.
Brent futures settled 71 cents, or 1.4%, lower at $51.09 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 90 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $47.62.
Earlier in the session, WTI hit its highest since February and Brent its highest since March. The premium of Brent over WTI reached its highest since May.
The S&P 500 and the Dow also fell from record levels as President Donald Trump travels to Georgia in a bid to keep the U.S. Senate in the hands of his Republican Party ahead of Tuesday’s run-off election in the battleground state.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, will resume talks on Tuesday after reaching a deadlock over February oil output levels as Saudi Arabia argued against pumping more due to new coronavirus lockdowns while Russia led calls for higher production citing recovering demand.
“Anything can happen, but Russia may not want to lose face and capitulate so easily. It looks like we may be in for some lengthy negotiations,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.
Venezuela's oil exports sink to 1940's level under tighter U.S. sanctions -data
Pressured by strict U.S. sanctions, Venezuela’s oil exports plunged by 376,500 barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and internal documents from state-run PDVSA, financially squeezing socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
Reference: Reuters
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