The light, sweet crude oil contract for January delivery settled above $57/bbl Nov. 29, dropping modestly before members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries met Nov. 30 in Vienna.
Brent crude oil for January also fell but still settled above $63/bbl.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers will discuss whether to extend product-cut targets of 1.8 million b/d. The agreement expires in March 2018, and an extension is expected.
Before the meeting started, there was discussion about extending the production-cut targets through June 30, 2018, although some producers were pushing for the extension to cover all of 2018.
Faced with ample world oil supplies, OPEC started the production-cut targets to bring inventories back to their 5-year average in hopes of ending a nearly 3-year oil price downturn.
Separately, the US Energy Information Administration reported US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, for the week ended Nov. 24 decreased by 3.4 million bbl from the previous week to 453.7 million bbl.
The Weekly Petroleum Status Report shows US oil production rose 24,000 b/d to 9.682 million b/d for the week ended Nov. 24. Production across the Lower 48 rose 20,000 b/d to 9.171 million b/d. Alaska’s production was up 4,000 b/d to 511,000 b/d.
Energy prices
The January 2018 light, sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 69¢ on Nov. 29 to $57.30/bbl. The February 2018 contract fell 69¢ to $57.36/bbl.
The NYMEX natural gas price for January increased 5¢ to a rounded $3.18/MMbtu. The Henry Hub cash gas price was $3.06/MMbtu, up 15¢.
Heating oil for December edged down nearly 3¢ to a $1.92/gal. The NYMEX reformulated gasoline blendstock for December fell 4¢ to a rounded $1.73/gal.
The Brent crude contract for January 2018 on London’s ICE decreased 50¢ to $63.11/bbl. The February 2018 contract was down 71¢ to $62.53/bbl.
The gas oil contract for December was up $4.50 to $565.75/tonne.
OPEC’s basket of crudes was $61.14/bbl on Nov. 29, up 17¢.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
