VIENNA: Oil prices dipped Tuesday as expectations dimmed of an OPEC agreement to reduce the cartel’s gushing of crude into the massively saturated global market by around a million barrels per day.
Prices were also hit as non-OPEC Russia confirmed it would not send a delegation to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting in Vienna on Wednesday.
“There is no need (to attend the meeting), OPEC should hold its meeting first,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday.
“Sure, if there is a consensus and OPEC takes a decision, we will come to an agreement as quickly as possible,” he added, though he did not specify a time frame.
In late morning European trading, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January was down 73 cents a barrel to $46.35, in what market analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets called “heebie-jeebies” on the eve of the talks.
Brent North Sea crude was down 0.72 cents to $47.52.
Analysts expect further falls if OPEC fails to agree on Wednesday its first joint output cut in eight years in an effort to reduce the global glut and so lift prices.
The group’s big players — Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq — disagree on what size cuts each member will make, and the cartel wants non-OPEC countries like Russia to reduce production too.
Russia is currently pumping some 11 million barrels per day (bpd), a level not seen since Soviet days. Hit hard by the low price and Western sanctions, Moscow has said it is ready to freeze output but not to cut it.
