Brent Crude dipped 99 cents, to $62.70 per barrel, after easing back from last week’s more than one-year peak above $67. WTI Crude dropped 89 cents to close at $59.75 per barrel, also down from last week’s high.
Prices slipped after a recent rally on expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, would add more oil to the market from April as they ease back on last year’s deep supply cuts. “With the speculative market heavily long, the past three sessions’ falls look corrective ahead of Thursday’s meeting,” said Jeffrey Halley, market analyst at OANDA. OPEC+, which meets on Thursday, could discuss allowing as much as 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) back into the market. OPEC oil output fell in February as a voluntary cut by Saudi Arabia added to reductions agreed to in a previous OPEC+ pact, a Reuters survey found, ending a run of seven consecutive monthly increases.
In Asia, China’s factory activity growth slipped to a nine-month low in February, which could curtail Chinese crude demand. Oil buying by the world’s top importer has recently eased. “There are signs that the physical market is not as tight as futures markets suggest,” ING Economics said in a note.
