Crude oil price has surged about $30 a barrel in last nine months, unleashing anxiety on countries such as the United States, India, and China. The crude oil price rallied mainly on production cuts by OPEC-members and non-members led by Russia but other geopolitical factors contributed too.
Now that the oil is hovering around $80 a barrel, a Reuters report said that OPEC may decide to raise oil output, which subsequently may bring down the international oil prices. Gulf OPEC countries are leading the initial talks on when the exporting group can boost oil production to cool the oil market after crude rose above $80 a barrel last week, and how many barrels each member can add, Reuters reported quoting unnamed sources.
The production cut target reached unprecedented 166% in April as Venezuelan economic crisis led to a bigger cut than intended. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is also monitoring the impact on oil supplies of the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and is ready to offset any shortage but it will not act alone to fill the gap.
Oil prices fell on Thursday, pulled down by expectations that OPEC members could step up production. International benchmark Brent futures were down 15 cents, or 0.19%, at $79.65 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 10 cents, or 0.14%, at $71.74 a barrel.