Brent futures dip as OPEC+ fails to agree to deeper or more prolonged output curbs

Oil prices were under pressure late on Thursday after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies failed to commit to deeper or more prolonged production curbs by its members.

At their 16th joint ministerial committee meeting, OPEC+ members only discussed the need for all countries to comply with their assigned production quotas, with Iraq and Nigeria having agreed to do so.

In a statement, they also noted how commercial stockpile levels in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries remained above their five-year averages - although they had declined recently - and that all the major benchmark crude futures were in so-called 'backwardation'.

It also highlighted the range of critical uncertainties that were looming over the global economy, including "trade-related tensions, monetary policies and other macroeconomic factors".

As an aside, in its September Oil Market Report published the day before, the cartel had trimmed its forecasts for oil demand growth in 2019 and 2020 by 80,000 and 60,000 barrels a day to 1.02m b/d and 1.08m b/d, respectively.

The forecast for non-OPEC supply growth in 2020 on the other hand was revised lower by 136,000 b/d.

Nonetheless, non-OPEC supplies were still seen growing by 1.99m b/d and 2.25m b/d in those two years.

The JMMC was scheduled to meet next on 4 December.

As of 1700 BST, front month Brent crude oil futures were falling by 1.45% to $59.94 a barrel on the ICE.