Oil change news: Oil sinks with traders disappointed by OPEC+ meeting outcome

Oil plunged as a highly-anticipated OPEC+ meeting drew to an underwhelming close, with market participants disappointed by smaller-than-expected cuts and hazy details surrounding quota enforcement.

West Texas Intermediate tumbled by 2.4 per cent to settle at below US$76 a barrel after a dramatic session that erased a majority of the week’s gains. The alliance announced that a roughly 900,000 barrels a day of additional oil output cuts will take effect in January, but the curbs are largely voluntary.

Angola has already rejected its new target, saying it will continue pumping as it has been. Whether other OPEC+ members will follow through on their commitments remains to be seen.

“What the market was hoping for was a unified voice on agreed-upon cuts,” said Stewart Glickman, an analyst at CFRA Research in New York. “Instead, what we apparently are getting is a series of individual Saudi-lite voluntary cuts.”