2023-12-02T05:14:17+00:00
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/ Oil prices incurred weekly losses of about 2 percent, in a volatile trading week, as the market anxiously watches the latest round of OPEC+ production cuts and the slowdown in global manufacturing activity.
Oil prices fell by more than two percent at the close on Friday, and Brent crude futures for February delivery fell by about $1.98, or 2.45 percent, to $78.88 per barrel upon settlement on the first day when February contracts are contracts for the nearest month of maturity.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $1.89, or 2.49 percent, to $74.07.
During the week, Brent recorded a decline of about 2.1 percent, while West Texas Intermediate recorded a decline greater than 1.9 percent, recording a decline for the sixth week in a row, bringing the combined losses to about 14.5 percent.
The oil-producing countries in the OPEC+ alliance agreed yesterday, Thursday, to reduce global oil production on the global market by about 2.2 million barrels per day in the first quarter of next year, including extending current voluntary cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia by 1.3 million barrels per day.
The OPEC+ alliance, which pumps more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, is focusing on reducing production as prices fell from about $98 a barrel in late September amid concerns about weak economic growth in 2024.
A survey showed that the US manufacturing sector remains weak and that factory employment declined in November.
Talks to extend a week-long truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) collapsed on Friday, leading to the resumption of the war in Gaza, which could result in the disruption of global oil supplies.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on Friday for a future without burning fossil fuels at all, during his speech at the two-week COP28 climate summit in the UAE.