Oil Prices Slide 4% After OPEC+ Unexpectedly Delays Ministerial Meeting

The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was $74.53 per barrel as of 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, down 4.2% in a day and down over 20% from the September peak of $93.68 per barrel, after OPEC+ announced it had delayed a key discussion on extending oil production cuts through 2024.

On Monday, Reuters reported that OPEC+ was set to consider extending and enhancing existing voluntary reductions of members' oil output at the group's ministerial meeting originally scheduled for Nov. 25-26. That meeting has now been postponed until Nov. 30, OPEC+ announced in a statement Wednesday.

OPEC+ did not provide any reasoning for the delay; the organization did not immediately reply to requests for comment from International Business Times. Earlier on Wednesday, Bloomberg had reported that the meeting could be postponed indefinitely, as Saudi Arabia continues to "express dissatisfaction" about other members' production cuts.

In addition to an organization-wide reduction of 1.66 million barrels of oil per day, which has been in effect since early 2023, Saudi Arabia and Russia have self-imposed additional cuts of 1 million and 300,000 barrels per day, respectively. Those cuts are reportedly scheduled to last through the end of 2023, at least.

Nov. 30, the rescheduled OPEC+ meeting date, is also notably the first day of COP 28, the international UN climate change conference, which is being held in Dubai.

COP host nation, the United Arab Emirates, is OPEC+'s third largest oil producer and the seventh-largest in the world, according to the IEA. The UAE has been a member of the cartel since 1967.