Brent dropped below the level of $78 per barrel

On Monday, there is a significant decrease in oil prices. The current Brent quote is $78.25 per barrel. However, at the beginning of trading, the asset fell to a minimum in the last two weeks – $ 77.67 per barrel. 

January futures for WTI on the NYMEX exchange lost 1.3% in price, dropping to $72.88 at the moment. The current quote for North American oil is $73.06 per barrel. Over the past week, both benchmarks have lost about 2%. 

Investors are carefully analyzing the potential impact on the oil market of the results of the last OPEC+ meeting. At the meeting, the ministers of oil-producing countries did not change the official quotas for oil production, but individual countries of the group announced a voluntary reduction in production by 2.2 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2024. 

Saudi Arabia will reduce production by 1 million barrels per day, Iraq – by 223 thousand, the UAE – by 163 thousand, Kuwait – by 135 thousand, Kazakhstan – by 82 thousand, Algeria – by 51 thousand, Oman – by 42 thousand.

Analysts note that in the short term, the oil market is inclined to further decline, given the level of uncertainty and the lack of obvious growth catalysts.

You should also pay attention to statistics from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes: the number of operating oil drilling rigs in the United States increased by 5 units, to 505 over the past week, while the number of gas installations decreased by 1, to 113.