Texas crude fell 2.5% to $74.07 a barrel

Price from Oil intermediary of Texas (WTI) ended Friday down 2.5% at $74.07 a barrel, following the voluntary cuts it announced on Thursday OPEC and associated countries.

Upon completion of operations in New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex)WTI futures for January delivery took off $1.89 from the previous day.

In the weekly calculation, American crude oil loses about 1% in value.

On Thursday, la la Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced voluntary reductions totaling 2.2 million barrels less on the market in the first quarter of 2024.

This decision includes an extension Saudi Arabia a voluntary production cut of 1 million barrels per day and Russia’s equally voluntary cut of 500,000 barrels per day in its exports until the end of March next year.

Other countries –Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman– will also be added to cuts, with different amounts.

The OPEC is now focused on cutting oil production due to lower prices since late September and concerns about weaker economic growth in 2024, according to CNBC.

But the fact that the cuts are voluntary and not mandatory – it doesn’t really seem like it Nigeria and Angola will join them – makes investors look at them with skepticism.

forward contracts natural gas for January, they increased by one cent, to close at $2.81, and those from petrol maturing the same month, it fell 5 cents to $2.12.