ICE Brent crude oil trading above $71 ahead of OPEC meeting

ICE Brent crude oil futures rose above $71 per barrel in trading hours on Tuesday, after six sessions of losses, boosted by a jump in spot gold to a six-month high and a rise in global equities towards a fresh peak for the year.

OPEC meets in Vienna later today and most analysts expect the group, which supplies more than a third of the world’s oil, to maintain its official price target of around $70 a barrel. “Market focus will be on the OPEC meeting,” MF Global wrote in a research note.” Practically all the ministers are saying that OPEC will stand pat, and we suspect the market has also
discounted this outcome as well.”

MF Global said crude oil prices could slip in the aftermath of the meeting, even if output remained unchanged. “Compliance rates are bound to sink even further, particularly in the current quarter, as demand enters a seasonally weak period where summer driving winds down, while the weather is still not sufficiently cold enough to boost distillate consumption.”

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