Oil prices drop following OPEC+ meeting

Global oil prices fell on February 3 morning, investors are still evaluating the results of the next OPEC+ meeting and the alliance’s decision to continue to increase production as planned in March, Report informs.

The price of April futures for Brent crude fell by 0.25% to $89.25 per barrel, March futures for WTI decreased in price by 0.39% to $87.92 per barrel.

Investors are evaluating the decision of OPEC+, according to which the alliance will increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day as planned in March. The next OPEC+ meeting will take place on March 2. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said following an alliance meeting on February 2 that countries outside the cartel noted a significant number of uncertainties in the market, including omicron variant, but the refusal of many countries from new restrictions is positive for oil demand.

Positive factors also restrain oil prices from going down. Thus, commercial oil reserves in the US for the week to January 28 decreased by 1 million barrels, although experts expected an increase of 1.5 million. Production for the week decreased by 100,000 barrels per day, to 11.5 million barrels. Distillate inventories declined more than expected, although gasoline inventories rose more than expected.