Crude oil prices dropped on Thursday morning at London’s trading session, after OPEC’s leading allies agreed to alleviate record supply curbs of crude from next month. Although the plunge in crude oil prices got softened by the recent drawdown in U.S crude oil inventories.
Brent crude lost about 0.59%, to trade at $43.52 per barrel by 05.33 am GMT, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost about 0.72%, to trade at $40.90 per barrel.
READ MORE: Avoiding or mitigating recession in post COVID Nigeria – Olisa Agbakoba
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies have agreed to increase crude oil supply starting from next month, as demand continues to rise to pre-pandemic levels.
OPEC+ agreed to reduce the daily production cut from 9.6 million barrels a day to 7.7 million barrels a day from August. The reduction in cuts was backed by both Saudi Arabia and Russia, including other participating oil ministers in the virtual conference.
“Some investors took profits after the OPEC+ decision, but a big draw in U.S. crude provided some support,” Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Co said.
READ MORE: Why Nigeria’s banking stocks performed well in May
In addition, Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at AxiCorp, in a note to Nairametrics, spoke about the sentiments oil traders are presently having. He said:
“Despite the increase in COVID-19 cases and lockdown restrictions in individual states, US oil demand recovery continues.
Download the Nairametrics News App
“Traders expect the market to tighten over the second half of 2020, so the peak for US oil inventories may be behind us. However, there is a risk that the restart of shut-in wells could put upward pressure on US crude stocks in the near term.”
