SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices extended losses on Tuesday as shipping traffic resumed through the Suez Canal after days on hold and attention switched to an OPEC+ meeting this week where the extension of supply curbs may be on the table.
Brent crude wad down 31 cents at $64.67 a barrel by 0613 GMT, after gaining 0.6% on Monday. U.S. oil was down 29 cents at $61.27 a barrel, having fallen 1% in the previous session.
Shipping traffic resumed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday after tugs refloated the giant Ever Green container carrier, which had been blocking a narrow section of the passage for almost a week, causing a huge build-up of vessels around the waterway.
The market is also turning its focus on Thursday’s meeting of OPEC+, including OPEC and its allies including Russia, in Vienna, according to Reuters.
They will discuss whether to keep in place curbs on output that have kept millions of barrels a day off the market to support prices.
Reuters cited a source briefed on the matter as saying Saudi Arabia is prepared to accept an extension of the production cuts through June, and is also ready to prolong voluntary unilateral curbs.
“Market expectations for no change to output are largely priced in,” Howie Lee, economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore, told Reuters.
The revival of heavy coronavirus caseloads in Europe “has put a brake on oil’s resurgence”,” Lee said.
