Oil: Brent stable at $ 80, following OPEC + decisions

Oil is relatively stable on Wednesday, following the decision of OPEC and its allies in the wider OPEC + to increase production normally in February, at a time when US crude stockpiles are falling for another week.

Futures in London are around $ 80 a barrel, in the wake of the decision of the OPEC + countries to add 400,000 barrels per day to their cumulative production at the beginning of next month, revising their previous position that as early as the first quarter of 2022 production will become surplus relative to demand.

The American Petroleum Institute announced that US crude reserves fell by 6.43 million barrels last week, according to sources familiar with the data cited by Bloomberg. Official data from the US Energy Information Administration is expected later in the day.

Oil closed in 2021 with a strong momentum, mainly due to production problems that reduced cumulative daily production by 1 million barrels, with issues mainly concerning Ecuador, Libya and Nigeria.

Concerns about a demand shock due to the coronavirus Omicron mutation have generally subsided and major economies continue to recover from the initial recession shock of the pandemic. However, concerns remain about part of Asia.

The global benchmark, March delivery of Brent crude oil, moves almost unchanged at $ 79.99 a barrel, while the American WTI type crude falls slightly in London by 0.1% to $ 76.93 a barrel.

Finally, it is unknown what effect it will have on OPEC + production from the political unrest in Kazakhstan, a member of the bloc, where the government resigned after angry protests over rising fuel prices.