Oil flirts with $80 ahead of Opec+ meet

Oil prices fell on Monday, with the Brent benchmark hovering around $80 a barrel as investors awaited this week’s Opec+ meeting and expected curbs on supplies into 2024. Brent crude futures were down 37 cents, or 0.4pc, at $80.21 a barrel by 11:33 a.m. ET (1633 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 29 cents, or 0.4pc, to $75.25. Both contracts lost $1 in early trading. Prices tumbled midweek when Opec+ —the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and allies including Russia — postponed to Nov 30 a ministerial meeting to iron out differences on production targets for African producers. Since then the group, helmed by de facto leader Saudi Arabia, has moved closer to a compromise, four Opec+ sources told Reuters on Friday and Opec+ is looking at deepening oil production cuts despite its policy meeting being postponed to this Thursday, an Opec+ source said on Monday.