Brent crude futures for February dropped 14 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $80.72 a barrel and U.S. WTI crude futures dropped 12 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $75.84
Oil prices dropped in early Asian trade on Friday, extending losses after OPEC+ producers agreed to voluntary oil output cuts for the first quarter of 2024 that fell short of market expectations.
Brent crude futures for February dropped 14 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $80.72 a barrel by 0005 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 12 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $75.84.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+, who account for over 40 per cent of the world’s oil, agreed to voluntary output cuts of nearly 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for Q1 2024.
At least 1.3 million bpd of those cuts, nevertheless, were an extension of voluntary curbs that Saudi Arabia and Russia already had in place. Earlier, delegates had said new additional cuts under discussion were as much as 2 million bpd.
OPEC+’s output of around 43 million bpd already reflects cuts of around 5 million bpd aimed at supporting prices and stabilising the market.
The total cuts amount to 2.2 million bpd from eight producers, OPEC said in a statement after the meeting. Included in this figure is an extension of the Saudi and Russian voluntary cuts of 1.3 million bpd.
The 900,000 bpd of additional cuts pledged on Thursday, includes 200,000 bpd of fuel export reductions from Russia, with the rest divided among six members.
The United Arab Emirates said it had agreed to curb output by 163,000 bpd while Iraq said it would cut an extra 220,000 bpd in Q1.
Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Algeria were among producers who said curbs will be unwound slowly after the first quarter, market conditions permitting.
