Oil prices tick down with OPEC meeting in rear view

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday, giving up most of the prior session’s gains that followed an announcement by the world’s top exporter, Saudi Arabia, that it would further cut output.

Brent crude futures were down 23 cents, or 0.3%, at $76.48 a barrel at 0020 GMT. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude eased 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $71.90 a barrel.

Brent had gained as much as $2.6 on Monday and U.S. crude had risen as much as $3.3 in the hours after Saudi Arabia said its output would drop by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 9 million bpd in July.

The voluntary cut, Saudi Arabia’s biggest in years, is on top of a broader deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia to limit supply into 2024 as OPEC+ seeks to boost flagging oil prices.

The OPEC+ pumps around 40% of the world’s crude.

However, many of these reductions announced after the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Sunday may not have a real impact as the group lowered the targets for Russia, Nigeria, and Angola to bring them into line with actual current production levels.

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