Oil dips as OPEC weighs deeper output cuts

Oil prices edged lower in muted trading on Thursday ahead of the start of OPEC meetings later in the day, steadying after the previous session’s steep gains on a sharp drop in US crude inventories and expectations of more output cuts.

Brent crude futures dipped 10 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $62.90 a barrel by 0112 GMT. Brent surged 3.6 per cent on Wednesday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $58.21 a barrel. They settled up 4.2 per cent on Wednesday.

Prices are now back roughly to the levels of a week ago, before they plunged on a lack of progress on resolving a 17-month-old US-China trade war that has hit global growth and demand for oil.