Oil prices fall due to OPEC+ concerns about slow demand recovery

According to CNBC website news on March 31: After OPEC and its allies lowered their expectations for demand growth in 2021, concerns about market recovery caused oil prices to fall on Wednesday.

The price of May Brent crude oil expiring on Wednesday fell 32 cents to $63.82 per barrel, a decrease of 0.5%. The more active June Brent crude oil contract price fell by 30 cents to close at $63.87 per barrel, a decrease of 0.5%.

US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI) futures fell 28 cents to 60.27 US dollars per barrel, a 0.5% drop.

A report from an OPEC expert group meeting showed that the organization has reduced its oil demand growth forecast for this year by 300,000 barrels per day.

 OPEC will hold a meeting on Thursday to determine production policy.

Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said: “Given this pessimistic outlook, it seems likely that the production quota will be maintained for another month.”

OPEC+ is currently cutting its daily output by more than 7 million barrels to support oil prices and reduce oversupply. Saudi Arabia added another 1 million barrels/day of output reduction.

Rystad Energy analyst Louise Dickson said: “Today the oil market is still speculating on what supply policy OPEC+ will formulate at tomorrow’s meeting, but the Brent crude oil price of $64 per barrel indicates that traders expect the organization to take a cautious approach. practice."

Kuwait’s Oil Minister Mohammad Abdulatif al-Fares expressed “cautiously optimistic” that as the new crown virus vaccination plan accelerates and industrial output resumes, global oil demand will improve.