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Oil prices lose gains after OPEC decision
Oil prices lost gains made earlier in trading on Thursday, December 5, to settle down by about 0.3% as investors assessed the impact of expectations of abundant supply in 2025 versus the consequences of the OPEC+ group’s decision to postpone increasing production until the end of the first quarter of the same year.
Brent crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $72.09 a barrel at settlement.
US crude futures fell 24 cents, or 0.35%, to settle at $68.30 a barrel, according to Reuters.
The OPEC+ group decided earlier on Thursday to postpone increasing oil production, by extending the voluntary production cut by 2.2 million barrels per day, until the end of the first quarter of next year, which pushed oil prices higher.
The eight member states participating in the latest OPEC+ production cut of 2.2 million barrels per day were due to raise output by 180,000 barrels per day, a fraction of the total, in January, after delaying the increase from October and then December due to low prices. According to the new decision, the group will begin gradually canceling the 2.2 million barrels per day of production cuts starting from April 2025, through monthly increases of 138,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters estimates, and this gradual process will continue over a period of 18 months until September 2026.
The 39th OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting is scheduled to be held on May 28, 2025.
OPEC+ revealed that the increase in UAE production will be done gradually starting from April 2025 until the end of September 2026.
Analysts said that expectations of a supply glut in 2025 overturned the support provided by the OPEC+ decision to prices earlier in the trading.
