Muscat: Oil prices rose in early trade today as OPEC+ announced a decision to slow the pace of production increases starting in October 2025, in response to expectations of weaker global demand. This development helped mitigate some of the losses from last week, with Brent crude and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude both experiencing slight gains.
According to Oman News Agency, Brent crude saw an increase of 34 cents, or 0.5%, reaching $65.84 a barrel. Similarly, WTI crude rose by 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $62.17 a barrel. Both benchmarks faced a decline of over 2% last Friday following a weak US jobs report, which raised concerns about energy demand. Over the past week, they experienced a decrease of more than 3%.
The latest decision by OPEC+ involves eight member countries collectively increasing production by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd) beginning in October. This is a significant reduction compared to the monthly increases of about 555,000 bpd scheduled for September and August, and 411,000 bpd in July and June. The move is seen as a strategic response to the changing dynamics of global energy demand.