London (awp/afp) – Oil prices were boosted on Tuesday by speculation of a production cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+), while natural gas suffered from mild weather forecasts in Europe.
Around 10:20 GMT (12:20 CET), a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in December took 1.11%, to 89.85 dollars.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month gained 0.94% to 84.52 dollars.
As the economic outlook deteriorates around the world, OPEC+ could decide on Wednesday to limit its extractions in order to reinvigorate crude prices which have fallen over the summer (-27% for Brent and WTI since the beginning June).
The announced drop in production could reach one million barrels per day, many analysts estimate.
But in fact, “the drop in real production would be much less, because many countries are already pumping less than their objectives” because they do not have the capacity to reach their quotas, recall analysts from ING.
By cutting its production, OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, would not respond to calls from consumer countries, which would like to see producers in the Middle East offset the declines in exports from Moscow since the start of the war. in Ukraine.
“OPEC+ had signaled its desire to limit its production at its last meeting and prices have nevertheless fallen, so further reducing supply on the market is important for the group to maintain its credibility”, estimates Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI AM.
On the gas side, the Dutch TTF futures contract, the benchmark for natural gas in Europe, cost 166.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) after falling to 159 euros, a level not seen since July.
Weather forecasts for Europe promise mild temperatures for the next few weeks, which should weigh on demand and give “hope that the damage caused by the lack of supply from Russia will not be as serious as expected”, comments Jim Reid, analyst at Deutsche Bank.
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