Oil prices climb amid disappointing OPEC production, Kazakhstan unrest
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E-mail Xinhua, January 7, 2022
Oil prices advanced on Thursday after reports showed limited output increase in the world's major producers.
The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery added 1.61 U.S. dollars, or nearly 2.1 percent, to settle at 79.46 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery increased 1.19 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to close at 81.99 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The above moves came after a Bloomberg survey showed that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) added just 90,000 barrels a day in December, as a boost by Saudi Arabia was offset by losses in Libya and Nigeria.
OPEC and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, are unwinding record production cuts imposed in 2020, as demand and prices recover from their pandemic-induced slump.
The oil alliance said on Tuesday after a meeting via video conference that it would stick to the plan to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day in February.
Investors also grew concerned over the unrest in Kazakhstan, a participating non-OPEC country.
"The political situation in Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly tense. And this is a country that is currently producing 1.6 million barrels of oil per day," Barbara Lambrecht, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Thursday in a note.
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