Oil prices go up ahead of OPEC+ meeting

On Monday, oil prices are going up, this week the market awaits new decisions by OPEC+ regarding production levels from April 2021, Interfax reports.

The cost of May Brent oil futures on the London stock exchange ICE Futures by 7:10 a.m. on Monday is $65.58 per barrel, which is $1.16 (1.8%) higher than the price at the close of the previous session. As a result of trading on February 26, these contracts fell by $1.69 (2.6%) to $64.42 per barrel.

The price of April futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time amounted to $62.5 per barrel, which is $1 (1.63%) higher than the level at the close of the market on Friday. As a result of the previous session, these contracts fell by $2.03 (3.2%) to $61.5 per barrel.

The OPEC+ meeting at the level of ministers of states will be held on March 4. It will be preceded by a meeting of the OPEC+ technical committee (March 2) and JMMC (March 3), where recommendations are usually developed for all OPEC+ ministers.

Traders believe that OPEC+ will decide to increase production, but are not sure how much it can be increased.

“The market could maintain a positive outlook in the event of a moderate increase in OPEC+ production, while a large increase will worsen its prospects for the near future,” said Michael McCarthy, oil strategy manager at CMC Markets Asia Pacific.

In February, both Brent and WTI went up by about 18%.

The oil market on Monday was also supported by growing expectations of the imminent adoption of a new stimulus package in the US. Last weekend, the House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a $1.9 trillion package of measures proposed earlier by President Joe Biden. Now the bill will be sent to the Senate.