Oil ends higher after a day of wild swings on OPEC

shafaq News / Oil prices settled more than 1%higher on Thursday, after a see-saw session that saw benchmarks swing in a $5 range after OPEC+ surprised markets by sticking to its plans to boost output slowly.

Brent crude futures settled up 80 cents, or 1.2%, at $69.67 a barrel after touching a low of $65.72 on the day, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 93 cents, or 1.4%, to $66.50, after dipping as low as $62.43.

The market sold off dramatically after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies known as OPEC+ issued a bit of a surprise by sticking to plans to boost output monthly by 400,000 barrels per day.

It was the latest in a series of events that have caused crude to slump wildly, having lost 24% in the last three weeks.

Oil futures rebuilt the rally by the end of the day, but the combination of uncertainty around the Omicron variant, efforts by governments to stem the tide of new infections and expectations for more supply kept traders on their toes.

Commodity trading advisors as well as institutions and hedge funds have been selling as well, closing out positions after an overall strong year for crude futures.

OPEC+ decided on Thursday to boost supply in January in line with previous months. Since August, it has been gradually winding down record cuts agreed to in 2020.

Source: Reuters