Oil Dips as Market Weighs OPEC+ Pause and Oversupply Concerns

Oil dipped after a four-day run of gains as the market weighed OPEC+’s decision to pause output hikes early next year.

Brent for January delivery traded near $65 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was just below $61. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies said at the weekend they planned to hold back from lifting production quotas in the first quarter, after a modest hike in output for next month. That came ahead of a widely expected glut.

OPEC+’s decision would be its first pause in adding barrels since it began restoring halted supplies in April. The group’s eight major members are still left with roughly 1.2 million barrels a day of the current supply tranche left to bring back, according to some estimates. The move prompted Morgan Stanley to raise its Brent forecast for early next year, but the bank flagged that the oversupply will only even out in 2027.