Oil prices strife ahead of OPEC meeting

Crude oil prices were hovering in narrow range-bound trading as market players are anxiously looking forward to the OPEC decision on oil production level.

The global glut in oil supplies and surging US dollar are putting more pressure on oil prices in a negative way. Oil prices turned weaker on thin trading volume. The rise in US oil inventories is further causing pressure on oil prices.

The US said that its commercial crude inventories were building up. Crude stockpiles in the US were up by one million during the week ended 20 November.

This took the total inventories to barrels to 488.2 million barrels, highest during the past eight decades. Oil prices eased in low trading volumes on account of US Thanksgiving holiday.

Sweet crude futures for delivery in January on New York Mercantile Exchange (NYME) were down $0.58 or 1.4 percent to $42.44 a barrel, according to Market Watch.

January Brent crude shed 0.68 percent or $0.15 to $45.31 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange.

The global industry and market players are looking to Organization of Oil Exporting Countries; (OPEC) next meeting.

OPEC seems to be not getting back from production level even if oil slips below $20 a barrel. There's spreading opinion that Opec should consider the dangers of future supply shortages as the global oil industry cut down on investments in new projects. Several projects were either stopped or postponed.

Though Opec is not publicly saying anything except no to cut down on production, behind the doors, they want oil prices to be stabilized in the range of $60-$80 a barrel, asserts CNBC News.

This level is considered to be ideal as it would boost demand and at the same time, doesn't encourage oversupply from other alternative sources.

Saudi Arabia-led Opec is likely to stick to its old decision not to cut oil production. OPEC is keen on its strategy to pumping out oil to keep up market share while leaving the space for market forces to determine pricing level.

The recent gunning down of a Russia plane by Turkey had pushed the oil price upwards. However, this geopolitical tension was later eased off, as reported by the Financial Times.

Market players are expected to cut down in Russian oil production owing to this incident. Russia is one of the largest oil producing nations in the world.

This strategy of OPEC is keeping oil prices below $50 a barrel. Either there should be a combined effort from OPEC to cut down on production level or significant global demand for oil may push prices up. Until then oil prices are expected to be subdued.

Barnabas Gan, an economist at OCBC, observes that ramping up the daily production from 31 million barrels a day to 33 million barrels a day to defend the bloc's market share seems to be working.

"US production of shale has seen a gradual decline and the number of active oil rigs in North America have also tapered off in recent weeks. OPEC will need to account for potentially higher oil production from Iran and Libya", he added.