Lagos (with agency reports)– The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and its allies, together known as OPEC+, will meet on January 4 to decide whether to continue increasing output in February.
News of the planned meeting came as oil prices eased on Thursday after the world’s top importer China cut the first batch of crude import allocations for 2022, offsetting the impact of U.S. data showing fuel demand had held up despite soaring Omicron coronavirus infections.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said on Wednesday the OPEC+ production agreement was needed for oil market stability and that producers must comply with the pact.
Iraq, on its part, said it would support sticking to existing OPEC+ policies to raise output by a combined 400,000 barrels per day, bpd, in February.
Global oil prices have rebounded by between 50% and 60% in 2021 as fuel demand roared back to near pre-pandemic levels and deep production cuts by OPEC+ for most of the year erased a supply glut.
Brent crude futures fell 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $78.96 a barrel at 1322 GMT on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid 36 cents, or 0.5%, to $76.20 a barrel after six straight sessions of gains.
Oil prices pared earlier gains after China, the world’s top crude importer, lowered the first batch of 2022 import quotas to mostly independent refiners by 11%.
“Market sentiment weakened on worries that the Chinese government could take stricter actions against the teapots,” a Singapore-based analyst said, referring to the independent refiners.
The US Information Administration data on Wednesday showed crude oil inventories fell by 3.6 million barrels in the week to Dec. 24, which was more than analysts polled by Reuters had expected.
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