Brent Crude Oil: wobbled near $100 per barrel on Wednesday, as oil markets remain volatile ahead of an OPEC+ meeting where it is expected to keep output largely unchanged amid supply challenges and concerns a potential global recession could hit energy demand.
US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia last month and called on OPEC to pump more crude, but capacity constraints and inability of some member states to meet output targets made the prospect of any significant supply boost unlikely.
Markets also continued to fret about an economic slowdown that has countered signs of tight physical markets. Elsewhere, escalating tensions between the US and China over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan kept market participants on edge.
Meanwhile, API data showed that US crude inventories expanded by 2.2 million barrels last week, defying expectations for a 600,000 barrel decline. Official data from the EIA will be released on Wednesday.
