The price of US WTI crude oil opened Wednesday’s trading session back at $100 a barrel after climbing 2 percent yesterday as Iranian comments surrounding the Strait of Hormuz had investors piling back into oil futures ahead of today’s OPEC meeting in Vienna.
Latest WTI Oil Price
US Light crude oil futures for January 2012 delivery was trading at $100.07 a barrel, 07.19 GMT this morning in electronic trading on the NYMEX.
The US oil contract closed yesterday’s trading session at $100.00 a barrel, $1.98 higher, or 2 percent.
OPEC Meeting
OPEC appears set to reach consensus over maintaining its official output quota at a meeting in Vienna today, as data showed that the cartel’s crude oil production was at the highest level for more than three years last month.
Kuwait’s Oil Minister Mohammad al-Baseeri said OPEC was likely to keep its production quota unchanged as the market was balanced and crude prices stable.
Analysts widely expect OPEC, which supplies a third of the world’s crude oil, to maintain its official output target of 24.84 million barrels per day, where it has stood for almost three years.
But with the IEA estimating that actual OPEC production hit 30.68 million barrels of oil per day in November, the highest amount in more than three years, OPEC may decide to issue a statement promising stricter compliance with its quotas.
Iran – Strait of Hormuz
WTI and Brent oil price jumped more than 3 percent in just minutes yesterday afternoon on a market rumour that Iran may close a major oil shipping channel, but then pared some gains as the rumour proved untrue.
Iranian MP Parviz Sorouri of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said “We will hold an exercise to close the Strait of Hormuz in the near future. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”
The comments, picked up by the quasi official Iranian Student News Agency, and reported by the Tehran Times, were later complemented by a statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry noting the Strait remains open.
The strait, located between Iran and Oman, is the most important oil shipping channel in the world.
Later, an Iranian official later dismissed the rumour, and a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s 5th fleet in Bahrain said shipping traffic in the strait was flowing normally.
“Rumours have a way of spreading around, and in this age of electronic markets, when you get something that starts to push prices up quickly, it triggers the stops and you get these explosions in prices.” said Tom Bentz, director of BNP Paribas Prime Brokerage.
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WTI crude oil price trading back at $100 ahead of OPEC meeting
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