Oil prices dropped in Thursday dealings, giving up early gains, after an official press release from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies made no mention of what earlier news reports had said would be a deal for an additional 1 million barrels-per-day cut in production quotas. OPEC+ said Brazil would join as a member starting in January. It also reaffirmed its previous agreements and set the next ministerial meeting date as June 1, 2024, but did not mention any additional output reductions or Saudi Arabia’s voluntary production cut which had been extended to the end of this year. Earlier news reports had said OPEC+ reached a preliminary deal to reduce their output by an additional 1 million barrels per day. Amena Bakr, deputy bureau chief and chief OPEC correspondent at Energy Intelligence, said on X to “be patient” and “ wait for the voluntary cuts announcements.” On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January West Texas Intermediate crude CLF24 was down $2.27, or 2.9%, at $75.59 a barrel, while January Brent crude BRNF24 traded at $82.77 a barrel on Ice Futures Europe, down 33 cents, or 0.4%.
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