Crude oil decreased 0.83% to US$51.14 per barrel on Friday (December 7) Historically, Crude oil reached an all time high of 145.31 in July of 2008 and a record low of 1.17 in February of 1946.

Yesterday, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has ended talks in Vienna without a deal on oil production cuts. That left the oil market dangling in uncertainty before non-OPEC allies joined a second day of talks.

The decision from this meeting is crucial for the oil and gas market. Brent Oil in London tumbled as much as 5.2% to US$58.36 a barrel, before paring losses to US$59.34 followed the first day meeting.

OPEC’ plan to cut crude oil production to prop up the weakening price may fail, if Russia,—a non-OPEC member oil exporter—does not agree to the changes. OPEC proposes to cut crude oil production by 1 million barrels per day, assuming Russia contributes 150,000 barrels cut per day.

But if Russia agrees to cut 250,000 barrels per day, the total overall cut can be 1.3 million barrels per day. Russian officials are still in discussions over the issue.

Meanwhile stocks of crude oil in the United States slumped by 7.323 million barrels in the week ended November 30th 2018, following a 3.577 million increase in the previous week and compared to market
expectations of a 0.942 million fall. This was the first period of decline after 10 weekly increases and the steepest fall since the beginning of July.