Oil prices slipped 2% as investors keep wary eye on OPEC+ cuts | Reuters

Oil prices slipped 2% as investors keep wary eye on OPEC+ cuts | Reuters

Oil prices slumped more than 2% on Friday following a volatile trading week, as the market kept a wary eye on the latest round of OPEC+ production cuts and sluggish global manufacturing activity.

Brent crude futures for February settled $1.98 lower, or 2.45%, to $78.88 a barrel on their first day as the front-month contract.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) dropped $1.89, or 2.49%, to $74.07 a barrel.

For the week, Brent posted a decline of about 1.9% and WTI recorded a drop of over 1.6%.

OPEC+ producers agreed on Thursday to remove around 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil from the global market in the first quarter of next year, with the total including a rollover of Saudi Arabia and Russia's 1.3 million bpd of current voluntary cuts.

Traders viewed the announcement with some skepticism, OANDA analyst Craig Erlam said.