Oil prices fall as expectations of higher supply hammer market sentiment By Reuters

(Reuters) – Oil prices fell for a third day on Friday, on course to end the week lower as investors focused on expectations of higher supply from Libya and the wider group of OPEC+ oil exporters.

Futures were down 57 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $71.03 a barrel by 0036 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 58 cents, or 0. 9%, at $67.09 per barrel.

On a weekly basis, Brent crude was set to fall around 4.6%, while WTI is on track to fall 6.6%.

“The big items on the market’s radar this week were Libya and OPEC+,” analysts at FGE Energy told clients on Thursday.

Rival factions claiming control of Libya’s Central Bank signed a deal to end their dispute on Thursday. The dispute has caused a sharp cut in the country’s oil production and exports, with crude exports falling to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) this month from more than 1 million barrels last month.

The deal could bring more than 500,000 barrels a day of Libyan supply to markets, ANZ Bank analyst Daniel Hynes said.

Separately, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, are currently cutting oil production by a total of 5.86 million bpd, but plan to reverse 180,000 bpd of those cuts in December.

A media report on Wednesday claimed that the previously announced reversal was due to Saudi Arabia’s decision to abandon its $100 oil price target and gain market share, which sent oil prices down 3% in the previous session.

Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC+, has repeatedly denied targeting a specific oil price, and sources in the wider group told Reuters that plans to increase output in December represented no major change from existing policy.

Still, the report sparked fresh speculation about a battle for market share at a time when investor sentiment was already at record lows, FGE noted.

“Overall, it is clear that oil markets remain very cautious about global oil balances in 2025 and what OPEC+ ‘should’ do, with the recent bearish mood underlined by the record low net length of ICE Brent contracts for managed monetary positioning . “, FGE said.