Comments
Oil was mixed in Asian trade today after OPEC ministers agreed for higher crude output without setting new quota rules, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was four cents higher at $94.99 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for January delivery 13 cents was down at $104.89.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday announced that production will be maintained at 30 million barrels per day (bpd). That acknowledged that the cartel has been consistently overproducing its own quotas.
Excluding the production of Iraq — which is not held to quotas for now — OPEC output in November was about 11 per cent, or more than three million barrels, above the official group total limit of 24.8 million bpd.
OPEC, whose 12 members produce about one third of the world’s oil supply and include Saudi Arabia, meets periodically to set the production levels.
“The OPEC agreed a target of 30 million barrels daily, ratifying current production near three-year highs,” analysts from Phillip Futures said in a report.
“Besides, worries that the OPEC lacked a mechanism to quickly trim the production of individual member quotas, after agreeing on a high output ceiling, added to selling pressure.”
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.