OIL PRICES

摘要

Prices for Brent and WTI have dropped by over US$10 in recent weeks. Brent tumbled from US$80.45 per barrel on October 22 to US$69.29 on November 8, caught out by a recent sell-off in global assets, as well as rising oil supply in the US, OPEC countries and Russia. US waivers for countries buying sanctioned Iranian oil exports have reduced some of the upside volatility in recent price movements, too. Brent did edge up to US$69.81 on November 12 after a joint meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil ministers, but fell back again the next day. Worried about the price drop and lower global oil demand in 2019, Saudi Arabia's energy minister announced that producers had agreed to a supply cut, to be implemented in December, which would likely wipe out the 1 mn bpd increase agreed last June.