Oil Trades on the Back Foot Aahead of OPEC Meet, Drops -1%
Oil benchmarks on both sides of Atlantic edged lower this Wednesday, as traders remain cautious ahead of weekly supply reports and OPEC meeting due tomorrow.
Oil dips as OPEC meeting looms
Currently, both crude benchmarks are extending previous losses, with Brent down –1.18% at $ 49.28, while WTI oil drops -1.06% to $ 48.58. Oil prices dipped in today’s trading session so far as traders remained on the side-lines and refrained from placing big bets on the black gold ahead of the OPEC meeting.
While oil prices also suffered from the outcome of the latest Reuters survey, which showed that OPEC oil output fell by 120,000 barrels to 32.52 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in May, a smaller decline than the market had previously forecast.
Looking ahead, the weekly stockpiles data by the API will be released later in the day, while the official government data by the Energy Information Administration will be reported on Thursday. Markets expect a fall of about 2.72 million barrels in crude inventories over the week to May 27, following a drop of 4.23 million barrels a week before.
