By Nicole Jao
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices fell by more than 2% on Wednesday ahead of a weekend meeting of OPEC+ producers that is expected to consider another increase in production targets in October.
Brent crude fell $1.6, or 2.31%, to $67.54 a barrel by 2:11 p.m. EDT (1811 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.68, or 2.56%, to $63.91 a barrel.
Eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies – known as OPEC+ – will consider further raising oil production at a meeting on Sunday, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters, as the group seeks to regain market share.
The prospect of OPEC+ raising oil production has increased ahead of the meeting, said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. Traders had expected the group to stay the course.
Another boost would mean that OPEC+, which pumps about half of the world’s oil, would be starting to unwind a second layer of output cuts of about 1.65 million barrels per day, or 1.6% of world demand, more than a year ahead of schedule.
The group had already agreed to raise output targets by about 2.2 million bpd from April to September, in addition to a 300,000 bpd quota increase for the United Arab Emirates.
“If output is raised in line with new quotas, we see the market moving into a sizeable surplus from September 2025 through 2026, with inventories building unless countered by renewed restraint,” said Ole Hvalbye, an analyst at SEB bank.
Actual increases from the group, however, have fallen short of its pledges as some members compensated for previous over-production and others struggled to raise output due to capacity constraints.
The market awaits the latest U.S. inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) later in the day, with expectations pointing to a fall in crude, gasoline and distillate stocks. [EIA/S]
Soft economic data, which tends to weigh on the demand outlook for oil, also pressured prices. U.S. Labor Department data showed on Wednesday that job openings, a measure of labor market demand, fell more than expected to 7.181 million in July. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 7.378 million.
Earlier this week, U.S. manufacturing contracted for a sixth month.
Meanwhile, parts of Nigeria’s 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery were offline due to catalyst leaks and other issues, with repairs expected to take at least two weeks.
(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Seher Dareen in London, Colleen Howe in Beijing and Jeslyn Lerh in Singapore; Editing by Nia Williams and Nick Zieminski)
