By Ken Afor
On Wednesday in Asia, the price of oil stayed relatively the same due to a potential increase in U.S. crude, which neutralized the effect of the probable reduction of supply from the OPEC+ coalition.
By 0004 GMT, Brent crude futures had increased by 11 cents (or 0.1%) to stand at $82.56 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures went up 14 cents (or 0.2%) to $77.91.
For the past four weeks, both benchmarks have decreased, causing investors to be wary when they ponder the OPEC+ session scheduled for Sunday; where they might go into detail about reducing supply as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown.
On Monday, contracts for oil rose by almost 2% after news from three sources connected to OPEC+ that the organization and their partners may think about including more production cuts when they assemble on November 26.
Analysts have projected that OPEC+ will probably extend or even intensify their oil production reductions for the next year.
The head of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Oil Markets and Industry Division declared on Tuesday that, regardless of whether OPEC+ nations extend their output reductions into next year, a slight surplus of global oil supply should be observed in 2024.
Stocks of American crude oil rose substantially, topping 9.1 million barrels in the week concluding Nov. 17, based on statistics released by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, as publicized by unidentified market sources.
Inventory levels of gasoline decreased by 1.79 million barrels while distillates dropped by 3.5 million barrels, according to the U.S. government, which is set to report new data on Wednesday.
