U.S. WTI crude was lower by 22 cents at $47.11 a barrel, marking a reversal from the strong momentum that recently pushed the commodity over the $50 mark.
Advertisement
Oil futures have rallied more than 10 percent since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it would hold informal talks in Algeria in late September, fueling expectations it could revive a pact on freezing production.
Oil prices had rallied last week and entered a bull market – a 20-percent rise from recent lows – after OPEC and Russian Federation announced plans to discuss the supply crisis, which has hammered the crude market for more than two years.
Unless global markets crash, I say that year of $60-plus oil will be 2017.
Al-Falih said no specific production level for a freeze has been broached yet. “Iran has made its sacrifices for the market and it’s no longer the time for Iran”, another Iranian website, Mizan Online, quoted him as saying.
The front-month Brent contract on the ICE Futures Europe exchange was about $1.80 barrel cheaper than the sixth month, compared with a spread of $3.08 barrel on July 29.
“There is growing realization within OPEC and outside that producers, inside and outside must take more proactive stands in relation to production management in order to complement traditional market force”, he said.
“There are two things going – wariness about the dollar tumbling after Friday’s Fed event and bottom-fishing by players looking for more speculative support for the market ahead of a possible OPEC deal next month”, a broker said.
Barkindo criticized the approach of non-intervention, underlining that oil producers (members of the cartel) are suffering from the current level of prices, which deprives producers of income worth about $1 trillion.
OPEC member Iran, which has been ramping up production to its pre-sanctions levels despite the recent supply glut, said on Friday that it would cooperate with other producers to stabilize oil markets, adding, however that it expected others to respect its individual rights. The strategy of non-intervention in the market since 2014 will not allow for reaching a fair price, he said.
Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, boosted output after Western sanctions were lifted in January, and had refused to join OPEC and some non-members in an accord earlier this year to freeze production levels.
“I will participate in this meeting”, Iran’s Zanganeh was cited as saying by the oil ministry’s news service Shana.
Advertisement
Ecuador President Rafael Correa met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif yesterday, apparently to discuss oil prices.
