Oil Prices Ease After OPEC + Decision

Oil prices retreated after OPEC + agreed to taper record supply curbs from August, although the drop had received some bailouts from the rapid recovery of US demand after crude inventories fell in.

Brent fell 33 cents, or 0.8%, to $ 43.46 a barrel, with WTI down 42 cents, or 1.05, to $ 40.78 a barrel. Prices rose 2% the previous day, supported by lower US crude inventories.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies (OPEC +) agreed on Wednesday to scale reduce oil production cuts from August as the economy slowly recovered. OPEC + has been cutting production since May by 9.7M bpd or 10% of global supply, but starting in August, cuts will officially drop to 7.7M bpd until December.