(New York) Oil prices accelerated on Monday, with traders betting that calls from the Biden government to increase production will be ignored by OPEC.
A barrel of Brent North Sea for delivery in January, which was the first day of listing, finished in London, up 1.18% to 84.71 dollars from Friday’s close.
In New York, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) per barrel for the month of December rose 0.57% to end at $ 84.05.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies in the OPEC + agreement are meeting virtually on Thursday by videoconference for their monthly meeting.
So far, the 23 producing countries have stuck to the schedule defined in July and which provides for production to be increased each month by 400,000 barrels per day, in order to gradually bring it back to its pre-pandemic level.
On Sunday, on the sidelines of the G20 summit held in Rome, US President Joe Biden criticized the OPEC + strategy.
“The idea that Russia, Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not planning to pump more oil so that people have gasoline to go to work is not fair,” said The head of state.
This is not the first signal sent to OPEC + by the Biden government, and this one, like the others, does not seem to move the members, many of whom have fresh diplomatic ties with the United States.
On Monday, Kuwait’s Oil Minister, Mohammed Al-Fares, quoted by the official Kuna news agency, estimated that the maintenance of the strategy defined by OPEC + guaranteed “a sufficient supply”.
For him, this policy “has proven its effectiveness in preserving the balance and stability of the markets” for black gold.
Joe “Biden has decided to make a big deal out of this subject when he knows there’s no way he’s getting those extra barrels,” commented Robert Yawger, head of futures contracts on the energy at Mizuho Securities.
“When they increased production in 2018, the market collapsed. They have learned the lesson, ”argues the analyst.