Crude oil futures traded lower on Thursday morning as the OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) cartel, known as OPEC+, postponed its ministerial meeting that was originally scheduled for November 26 to the month-end. Official data from the US also showed an increase in crude oil inventories in that country.

At 9.53 am on Thursday, January Brent oil futures were at $80.88, down by 1.08 per cent, and January crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $76.18, down by 1.19 per cent.

December crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,362 on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during initial trading, against the previous close of ₹6,363, down by 0.02 per cent, and January futures were trading at ₹6,395, as against the previous close of ₹6,396, down by 0.02 per cent.

Members unhappy

An OPEC+ press release on Wednesday announced the postponement of its joint ministerial meeting, which was originally planned for November 25 and 26, to November 30. Though it did not give any reason for the postponement of the meeting, market reports said that there were some disagreements over the production output cuts by some member countries.

In its Commodities Feed on Thursday, ING Think said several members of OPEC+ are reportedly unhappy about their production targets for the next year, levels of which were announced back in June. This is specifically the case for Angola, Congo and Nigeria, who had their production targets cut since they struggled to hit their 2023 targets. These members were unhappy back then, and it was agreed that their targets would be revisited before the end of this year and possibly raised.

Mentioning that this has not happened, ING Think said Angola’s output target was cut from 1.46 million barrels a day in 2023 to 1.28 million barrels a day in 2024, Congo’s target was reduced from 310 million barrels a day to 276 million barrels a day, whilst Nigeria’s target was cut from 1.74 million barrels a day to 1.38 million barrels a day.

It said that Angola and Congo are currently producing below their 2024 production targets. However, Nigeria has managed to increase output recently and is pumping around 1.49 million barrels a day, which is above its target for the next year.

“Disagreement between members will likely increase volatility within the market over the course of the next week. It is unclear how this will affect broader policy, or whether it could have any impact on Saudi Arabia extending its additional voluntary cut of 1 million barrels a day into early 2024,” ING Think said in its Commodities Feed.

EIA data show rise in US stocks

Meanwhile, a petroleum status report by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) for the week ending November 17 showed an increase in crude oil inventories in that country. According to US EIA, commercial crude oil inventories in the US increased by 8.7 million barrels from the previous week.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels a day, down by 1.2 per cent from the same period last year.

US crude oil imports averaged 6.5 million barrels a day last week, an increase of 156,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels a day, 1.7 per cent more than the same four-week period last year.

Guarseed gains, turmeric loses

November aluminium futures were trading at ₹203.80 on MCX against the previous close of ₹203.15, up by 0.32 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), December guarseed contracts were trading at ₹5,636, against the previous close of ₹5,624, up by 0.21 per cent.

December turmeric (farmer polished) futures were trading at ₹12,220 on NCDEX, against the previous close of ₹12,338, down by 0.96 per cent.

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