Oil adds to losses ahead of OPEC meeting as Saudis said to want more output hikes

[Data analyzing in commodities energy market: the charts and quotes on display. US WTI crude oil price analysis. Stunning price drop for the last 20 years.]
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Crude oil futures fell for a third straight session Friday, as market expectations are growing that OPEC+ will agree at Sunday's meeting to push more barrels into the market to regain market share.

Saudi Arabia wants to boost production further [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-set-weekly-loss-tension-060914517.html] in an attempt to offset lower prices with higher volumes, Bloomberg reported, although no decision has been made, and it is not clear whether any increase would be agreed upon by Sunday or only in later months.

OPEC+ would be starting to unwind a second layer of production cuts of ~1.65M bbl/day, or 1.6% of global demand, more than a year ahead of schedule.

"If the eight OPEC+ countries were to agree on another production increase, we believe this would place significant downward pressure on oil prices. After all, there is already a significant risk of a supply surplus," Commerzbank analysts said in a note.

Friday's weak U.S. jobs report, which showed U.S. non-farm payrolls rising by only 22K jobs last month, dimmed the outlook for energy demand.

Meanwhile, this week's bearish U.S. inventory report [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4492532-oil-slips-on-surprise-build-in-us-crude-stocks-potential-opec-output-hike-adds-to-bearish-bent] further weighed on sentiment, with the latest EIA data showing U.S. crude stocks rose by 2.4M barrels last week compared to expectations of a decline and are now at their highest level since early August.

However, further price drops may be capped by risks of disruption to Russian supplies from Ukrainian attacks on key energy infrastructure and the potential of tougher U.S. sanctions.

India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday that the country will continue buying Russian oil, signaling its intention to defy President Trump's demands to stop the purchases.

Front-month Nymex crude (CL1:COM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CL1:COM]) for October closed -2.5% on Friday to $61.87/bbl, its lowest settlement value since May 30, capping a three-day losing streak that has dragged down the U.S. benchmark by 5.7%, and front-month Brent crude (CO1:COM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CO1:COM]) for November settled -2.2% to $65.50/bbl; this week, Nymex and Brent fell 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively.

Front-month Nymex natural gas (NG1:COM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NG1:COM]) for October finished -0.8% on Friday to $3.048/MMBtu, ending a seven-session string of small gains; for the week, Nymex gas gained 1.7%.

ETFs: (NYSEARCA:USO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/USO]), (BNO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BNO]), (NYSEARCA:UCO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UCO]), (SCO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SCO]), (USL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/USL]), (DBO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DBO]), (DRIP [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DRIP]), (GUSH [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GUSH]), (USOI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/USOI]), (UNG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UNG]), (BOIL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BOIL]), (KOLD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/KOLD]), (UNL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UNL]), (FCG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/FCG]), (NYSEARCA:XLE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XLE])

Energy stocks, as represented by the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLE [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XLE]), finished the holiday-shortened week -3.3%.

Top 5 gainers in energy and natural resources in the past 5 days: Daqo New Energy (DQ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DQ]) +27.9%, Polar Power (POLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/POLA]) +26.4%, Cosan (CSAN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CSAN]) +25.8%, Canadian Solar (CSIQ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CSIQ]) +17.4%, Delek US Holdings (DK [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DK]) +16.2%.

Top 10 decliners in energy and natural resources in the past 5 days: ASP Isotopes (ASPI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ASPI]) -22.1%, Sable Offshore (SOC [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SOC]) -18.7%, Prairie Operating (PROP [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PROP]) -17.7%, Vivopower International (VVPR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/VVPR]) -16.7%, Solaris Energy Infrastructure (SEI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SEI]) -16.6%, MP Materials (MP [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MP]) -14.2%, NET Power (NPWR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NPWR]) -14%, Aemetis (AMTX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AMTX]) -11.8%, Stem (STEM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/STEM]) -11%, Snow Lake Resources (LITM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LITM]) -10.7%.

Source: Barchart.com

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