Oil Price fall to $49pb as Iraq raises crude export

ITRealms:

Following an increase in Iraq’s crude exports, oil prices fell to $49 per barrel on Monday, ahead of the meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), scheduled for Thursday, June 2, ITRealms reports.

Oil prices are expected to edge further downward as Canadian production is set to start after huge wild fires. Attention is therefore turned to the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Thursday, which is aimed at reaching an agreement over production freeze in an effort to prop up oil prices, though most analysts do not expect any changes in the group’s production.

According to Commerzbank analysts, “We do not expect any (OPEC) agreement on a specific production target to be achieved. Iraq plans to discuss freezing oil production, but Iran and Saudi Arabia are unlikely to be ready to take any such step.”

ITRealms gathered that a spike in tensions between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran had ruined prospects of reaching a production freeze agreement at the last meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC which held in Doha, Qatar.About 18 OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, including Russia, met in the Qatari capital of Doha to rubber-stamp a deal to freeze output at January levels until October 2016, but the meeting was postponed to June 2, after OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, told participants it wanted all OPEC members, including Iran, to take part in the freeze, but Iran had refused this offer, seeking to regain market share after the lifting of US sanctions against it in January this year.

Okoli Vincent/GEE

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