Brent Crude gains ahead of OPEC+ Meeting

Brent crude futures rallied as much as 2% to $64.2 per barrel on Thursday, before cutting some gains to trade around $63.7, as traders look forward to today’s OPEC+ meeting, which is expected to offer guidance into the bloc’s production plan from May.

Major oil producers are seen extending the current production cut into May, amid concerns about extended restrictive measures in Europe, slow vaccine rollouts and rising COVID-19 cases in India and Brazil.

On Wednesday, the Joint Technical Committee, which advises the group of oil-producing nations, made no formal recommendation, three OPEC+ sources said.

Meanwhile, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed an unexpected draw in US crude stocks last week, while the American Petroleum Institute (API) report released one day before had shown a bigger-than-expected build in inventories.

Source: Trading Economics