Oil prices slip after OPEC, allies agree to loosen oil supply curbs
Oil prices slid on Thursday after OPEC and allies such as Russia agreed to ease record supply curbs from August, though the drop was cushioned by hopes for a swift US demand pick-up after a bigger-than-expected drawdown from the country’s crude stocks.
Brent crude fell 13 cents, or 0.3%, at $43.66 a barrel by 0015 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 18 cents, or 0.4%, to $41.02 a barrel. They rose 2% the previous day, helped by the U.S. crude inventories drop.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed on Wednesday to scale back oil production cuts from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
