THE oil price has fallen below $60 per barrel again amid signs Opec members may not cut production by as much as expected.
The Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al Falih told reporters that a cut of around one million barrels per day in production could provide enough support for the market.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting in Vienna at which member of the exporters’ organisation will consider curbing production, with a deal expected to be announced today.
Traders have said a much bigger cut would be required to help reverse the 30 per cent fall in the price of Brent crude from a four year high of $85/bbl since October, which reflects booming US production.
Brent crude sold for $59.18/bbl yesterday afternoon down four per cent on the day.
It rose above $62/bbl on Monday spurred by hopes trade tensions between the US and China were easing, which have since faded.
The oil price plunged from $115/bbl in June 2014 to less than $30/bbl early in 2016, triggering a deep downturn in the North Sea. Production curbs agreed by Opec and Russia late in 2016 sparked a partial recovery in the price.
Opec members want Russia to co-operate in any fresh production curbs. President Trump has put pressure on Opec to maintain output to help reduce oil prices.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here