TheCable

Crude oil prices edged lower on Friday after OPEC+ — consisting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies — postponed a meeting on output policy.

At the time of writing this report, Brent crude, the international benchmark, posted losses of about 0.45 percent as it traded around $75.5 a barrel with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down by 0.32 percent at $74.99.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have reportedly reached a preliminary deal for OPEC+ to gradually increase output by 400,000 barrels per day every month from August and December, to meet rising global demand.

The agreement would also have extended the duration of the broader OPEC+ accord, setting the final expiry of the cuts in December 2022 instead of April.

However, the deal was thrown into disarray after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) blocked a plan for an easing of cuts and their extension to the end of 2022.

The UAE, which has ambitious oil output growth targets, objected to the proposal during the meeting, asking OPEC+ to change the baseline for cuts — a level of initial output from which reductions are calculated.

Reports said Russia and Saudi Arabia, the leaders of the group, angrily rejected the UAE’s request.

This prompted OPEC + to postpone its ministerial meeting until Friday to continue discussions on oil production policy.