Crude oil futures traded lower on Monday morning following a price cut announcement by Saudi Arabia.
At 9.55 am on Monday, March Brent oil futures were at $77.87, down by 1.13 per cent, and February crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $72.91, down by 1.22 per cent.
January crude oil futures were trading at ₹6070 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during initial trading against the previous close of ₹6128, down by 0.95 per cent, and February futures were trading at ₹6105 against the previous close of ₹6161, down by 0.91 per cent.
Saudi Arabia, one of the major producers of crude oil in the global market, has taken a decision to cut prices by $2 a barrel. The prices of February-loading Arab Light to Asia were slashed by $2 a barrel below the Oman-Dubai benchmark. An increase in crude oil production by some countries has forced major producers such as Saudi to take this decision.
Though OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and its allies, known as OPEC+, had asked member countries to take decision on voluntary production output cuts recently, some OPEC+ members did not agree to this.
