MELBOURNE- Oil prices were flat on Tuesday ahead of a meeting where major producers are expected to stick to plans to add supply in February, as soaring COVID-19 cases have yet to spark lockdowns in the biggest fuel-consuming countries.
Brent crude futures gained 1 cent to $78.99 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 2 cents to $76.06 a barrel.
The two benchmark contracts both climbed more than 1 percent on Monday.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allies – together called OPEC+ – are due to meet.
OPEC+ has been gradually unwinding record oil production cuts of 10 million barrels per day (bpd), about 10% of global oil output, agreed in March 2020 to counter the hit to demand from the pandemic.
Three OPEC+ sources told Reuters the group is likely to stick to its plan to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day in February, as it has done each month since August.
Current plans would see it raise its February production target by 400,000 bpd as it has done each month since August, when it began to unwind 5.8 million bpd of remaining cuts.
By the end of January, the group is left with about 3.4 million bpd of cuts to unwind by the end of September, as per its July 2021 agreement.
OPEC met on Monday and agreed to appoint Haitham al-Ghais, a former Kuwaiti governor to OPEC, as its new secretary general, to succeed Nigeria’s Mohammad Barkindo, according to an OPEC statement.
Al-Ghais will take over the role on Aug. 1.
RBC Capital Markets analysts said OPEC+ was unlikely to change course given the current price outlook, pressure from the administration of US President Joe Biden to boost supply, and no major new COVID-19 mobility curbs.
