Is Today’s Oil Price Plunge A Sign Of Things To Come? | OilPrice.com

Is Today’s Oil Price Plunge A Sign Of Things To Come? | OilPrice.com:

Oil prices tanked early on Black Friday on rumors that OPEC’s leading members aren’t willing to deepen output cuts. At 12:40 PM ET, WTI was down 4.59% at $55.54 and Brent was trading 4.27% lower at $60.57.

Oil prices have held firm in recent weeks on the understanding that Saudi Arabia was willing to at least extend the current production quota through June 2020.

In light of the ongoing Aramco IPO process, Saudi Arabia’s highest priority has been to keep oil prices steady around $60 per barrel. The Kingdom, however, is facing some resistance from other members of the oil cartel ahead of its next meeting. 


Riyadh’s largest partner in the OPEC+ production cut deal, Russia, has been far less compliant and less vocal about rolling over the current production cuts. Russian oil majors have thus far been slow to respond to Moscow’s mandate to cut oil production and, as a result, the country continues to overproduce. Russian oil CEOs Igor Sechin and Vagit Alekperov even expect OPEC to delay a decision about extending oil production to March 2020.