Crude oil futures fall after OPEC+ postpones meeting

Singapore — 0157 GMT: Crude oil futures were lower in mid morning trade in Asia Monday after OPEC postponed its webinar meeting to discuss potential output cuts to Thursday, from Monday as initially planned.

At 09:57 am Singapore time (0157 GMT), May ICE Brent crude futures fell $1.41/b (4.13%) from Friday's settle at $32.70/b, while the NYMEX April light sweet crude contract fell $1.76/b (6.21%) at $26.58/b.

"Oil looks set to give back part of last week's neck-breaking gains given that today's scheduled virtual meeting between OPEC and its allies was said to be postponed," UOB analysts said in a note Monday.

The planned emergency OPEC+ meeting was postponed because of a clash between Saudi Arabia and Russia, and a lack of commitment from the US on possible output cuts.

Ministers had been contemplating plans to claw back 10 million b/d -- about 10% of global crude supply -- contingent on the US and other countries such as Canada and Brazil, joining in, to lift prices after weeks of freefall.

However, Trump said on Friday after meeting with the heads of several US oil companies that he was not inclined to force them into mandatory output cuts.

Saudi Arabia also felt burnt by comments Friday from Russian President Vladimir Putin that the kingdom was to blame for the crash in oil prices.

Putin had said that Saudi Arabia was boosting its production to target US shale oil companies, while maintaining that Russia was not interested in taking US market share.

"Traders remain extremely skeptical a deal will be forthcoming, and if one does occur, it will be woefully insufficient to stem the oil supply gushers," AxiCorp's chief market strategist Stephen Innes said in a note Monday.

"A 'good' outcome for oil prices from the OPEC+ meeting would be a global agreement to cut output beyond OPEC and Russia. However, that would require cuts from the US producers," Innes added.

Concerns of a growing supply glut and price war prevailed after the OPEC+ meeting on March 6, when Russia rejected a Saudi-led OPEC proposal for deeper cuts to combat the coronavirus' impact on the oil market.

Crude prices have initially settled sharply higher Friday amid optimism that the emergency OPEC+ meeting would yield a production-cut agreement.