The price of the Brent crude oil was slightly up by 6 cents or 0.09 per cent on Friday to $63.40 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil moved up by 82 cents or 1.4 per cent to $59.47 per barrel as the market weighed the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, which kept geopolitical risks elevated, while the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) is due to meet on Sunday.
Signs that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia might be close pushed oil prices down sharply earlier this week, but they have recovered over the past three sessions as negotiations dragged on.
US crude futures trading was halted after being frozen due to a system outage at exchange operator CME Group, blamed on a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centres. Brent trades on the Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE.
Throughout the week, expectations for a higher global supply weighed on prices. leading both contracts to the fourth straight monthly loss, their longest losing streak since 2023.
In the US, the world’s largest oil producer, production rose to record highs in September, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Friday, deepening concerns that the market is heading towards a surplus. US crude oil output rose 44,000 barrels per day in September to a record 13.84 million barrels per day, according to the EIA data.
Meanwhile, OPEC+ is likely to leave oil output levels unchanged at its meetings on Sunday. The group could also agree on a mechanism to assess members’ maximum production capacity, as per Reuters.
Ministers are scheduled to hold four online meetings on Sunday starting with OPEC ministers only, this will be followed by meetings of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), of all OPEC+ ministers and ending with a meeting of a sub-group of eight members including Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Kazakhstan and Algeria.
These countries which have been gradually raising output in 2025 are expected to keep their policy to pause hikes in the first quarter of 2026 unchanged.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is expected to lower its January crude price for Asian buyers for a second month to its lowest in five years, under pressure from ample supplies and the surplus outlook.