(London) Oil prices, very volatile since the discovery of the new variant of COVID-19, recovered strongly on Wednesday in a feverish market a few hours from a summit of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC).
Around 5:55 a.m., the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February, which is the first day of use as a benchmark contract, advanced 5.19% to 72.82 dollars.
In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the month of January gained 4.88% to 69.41 dollars.
These two contracts, which lost more than 5% on Tuesday, “are recovering while the main producers will try to counter the threat to fuel demand by the Omicron variant”, explains Avtar Sandu, analyst at Philip Futures.
The thirteen members of OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, meet by videoconference on Wednesday at 8 a.m. (2 p.m. in Paris and Vienna, at the headquarters of the cartel), with the aim of deciding on their level of production at the start. next year.
But nothing will be ratified before the agreement of their ten allies, led by Russia, who join them the next day at the OPEC + summit.
Many analysts are counting on a pause in production increases early next year, a strategy that would make it possible to curb as best they can a fall in prices unfavorable to producers’ funds, by more than 10% since Thursday evening, and this despite the current rebound.
Such a decision would be in line with the measured approach adopted since the gradual reopening of the valves by OPEC + from May 2021.
The market is also closely monitoring the Iranian nuclear negotiations which resumed on Monday.
The historic producer of OPEC has been excluded from the market since Donald Trump’s denunciation in 2018 of the 2015 nuclear agreement, supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.
A possible lifting of sanctions would cause the cartel’s supply to increase in a context that has become more uncertain for demand.