Oil prices were little changed and trading only slightly down early on Monday while the market is waiting for the OPEC+ group to begin a third day of meetings to try to reach a consensus about oil production levels in the coming months.
As of 10:15 a.m. EDT on Monday, WTI Crude prices were slightly down by 0.03 percent, trading at $75.15, and Brent Crude was trading down 0.08 percent, at $76.10 a barrel.
At 11:00 a.m, the OPEC+ meeting, scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Vienna time (9 a.m. EDT), had not started yet, with reports emerging that side talks continue. There is a push from some member states to convince the group that a collective compromise is needed, Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief Opec Correspondent at Energy Intelligence, reported.
The standoff between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia continued unresolved over the weekend and early on Monday before the third day of the OPEC+ meeting.
The UAE is blocking a deal that would see the group raise production and extend the pact beyond April 2022, unless it gets a revision of its baseline for the production cuts. The UAE is not opposed to easing of the cuts, but it wants its baseline to be revised up by around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current baseline level.
Commenting on today’s crude oil price, Saxo Bank analysts said that market participants were “trying to decipher what happens next within the OPEC+ group following a rare diplomatic spat between the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”
“At stake if the unity weakens, is the group's ability to continue to control prices, and with this in mind the market is still refusing to believe that a deal will not be struck eventually,” Saxo Bank’s strategy team noted early on Monday.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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