Oil price declined, back to last week level

At the end of a volatile day, oil closed lower. ICE Brent for September delivery (the new front month) settled at $109.03/b, that is a 3.0% loss. And, NYMEX WTI moved -3.7% to $105.76/b.

OPEC+ ambassadors decided to raise output quota by 648kb/d in August, in line with expectations. This was the final output increase of the present agreement, but the cartel did not talk about the future policy of the alliance. Before the next meeting, President Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia, high gasoline prices are a hot topic for the US administration, but the president said he will not ask directly to the Kingdom to produce more: he thinks all Gulf states need to output more oil, not only Saudi Arabia.

In Ecuador, an agreement was found and disruptions on oil infrastructures should end by next Thursday. 

And, in Norway oil workers will go on strike next Tuesday, it could reduce the country production by 4% (the average output is 1.7mb/d).

On this Friday morning, oil benchmarks are trading lower, -0.3% for ICE Brent and -0.5% for NYMEX WTI.