(MENAFN) On Friday, oil rates experienced an uptick driven by market expectations surrounding the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its coalition partners, collectively known as OPEC+. The anticipation was that these entities would opt to extend ongoing production cuts. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at USD84.02 per barrel, marking a modest 0.42 percent increase from its previous session's closing value of USD83.67. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate, the American benchmark, saw a parallel 0.42 percent rise, reaching USD79.28 per barrel from its preceding session's USD78.95.
Recent weeks had witnessed a decline in oil rates, attributed in part to diminished supply risks in the Middle East amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Additionally, apprehensions concerning a potential decrease in demand had emerged amidst uncertainties surrounding the trajectory of the US economy, particularly after the Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its existing interest rate policy unchanged.
However, amidst these downward pressures, the prospect of sustained production cuts by the OPEC+ group, spearheaded by key players like Saudi Arabia and Russia, served to buoy prices. With the next scheduled OPEC+ meeting slated for June 1, analysts anticipate that should oil demand fail to exhibit signs of recovery by that time, OPEC may opt to prolong its ongoing voluntary production cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day in an effort to stabilize prices and mitigate volatility in the market.
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