Oil side-lined amid OPEC output cut uncertainty

Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic is seen trading around a flat-line so far this Thursday, as the bulls remain on the back foot amid impending OPEC action

Oil consolidates near monthly tops

Currently, both crude benchmarks trade range-bound to higher, with Brent up +0.26% just ahead of $ 49 mark while WTI rises +0.31% to 48.10 levels. Oil prices stalled its renewed upmove seen yesterday, and waver in a tight range, as traders digest dozens of headlines flowing into markets on the potential OPEC output cut deal to be reached at the Vienna meeting on Nov. 30.

Latest headlines cited that OPEC has not yet made an output cut proposal to the non-OPEC producers, while Russia’s oil minister noted that Russia was ready to freeze production at current levels.

Moreover, thin trading amid a holiday in the US, also keeps the price-action limited in the commodity. However, the sentiment around the black gold remains buoyed somewhat, in wake of yesterday’s EIA report, which showed an unexpected drawdown in the US crude stockpiles.

The US crude inventories unexpectedly dropped by 1.3 million bbl last week, against a 0.3 million bbl build expected.

To learn more about this topic, check our video analysis