Oil prices settle down on potential further increase in OPEC+ output
Oil prices settled lower on Thursday as investors weighed a report that OPEC+ is discussing a production increase for July, stoking concerns that global supply could outpace demand growth.
Brent futures settled down 47 cents, or 0.72%, to $64.44 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled down 37 cents, or 0.6%, at $61.20.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known collectively as OPEC+, are discussing whether to make another large output increase at their meeting on June 1, Bloomberg News reported.
An increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July is among the options under discussion, though no final agreement has been reached, the report said, citing delegates.
"The OPEC+ speculation is the biggest factor today," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.
"This OPEC+ decision is going to be pretty weighty, and it is not helping that Kazakhstan did not come through last month," he added.
Kazakhstan’s oil production has risen by 2% in May, an industry source said on Tuesday.
Reuters previously reported that the group planned to accelerate output increases and could bring back as much as 2.2 million bpd by November. OPEC+ has been in the process of unwinding production cuts, with additions to the market in May and June.
Source : Reuters
