What’s up with the oil price right now? // The Motley Fool Australia

What's up with the oil price right now?

Oil prices are in the spotlight as OPEC gathers to discuss production rates. Let's take a look at how a few ASX oil shares are performing.

Gretchen Kennedy

Gretchen grew up in a small Connecticut town where she learned to read The Wall Street Journal as part of the grade six enrichment program. She moved to Australia in 2002, earned a Master of Arts (Professional Writing) and went on to spend eight years writing on Wall Street. In June 2018, Gretchen returned to Australia and has since developed a keen interest in all things ASX. In December 2020, she started writing for the Motley Fool. Gretchen's usually writing something, reading a book or chasing her dogs around.

Published March 4, 2021 2:49 pm AEDT

The brent crude oil price is up 2.29% for the day (at the time of writing) and 23.27% for the year.

Investors are watching oil this week as OPEC+ gets together to discuss production levels.

Man holding petrol pump line which is forming upward trending arrow. — Image source: Getty Images

Price of oil on watch after OPEC+ talks

According to MarketWatch, traders are looking to OPEC+ to ease trading restrictions come April 2021.

The group of major oil producers met to hold talks this week, and some analysts are expecting production to be ramped up.

Reuters claims that OPEC+ is expecting global oil demand to grow to 96 million barrels per day. Reuters further notes that market expectation is for an estimated ease in production cuts equating to 500,000 barrels per day.

ASX companies react to oil price

Oil Search Ltd (ASX: OSH) shares are slightly lower in afternoon trading, down 0.71% at $4.20.

The slide in the Oil Search share price comes despite the company's announcement today that Peter Fredricson has been appointed chief financial officer (CFO) effective 23 March 2021.

Meanwhile, the Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price has edged up to $7.40 at the time of writing, a 0.14% push.

In a recent update, the company announced that S&P confirmed its BBB- (stable) credit rating. S&P commented that the stable outlook "reflects S&P's view of Santos' capacity to fund growth…"

The Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) share price is up 1.23% at the time of writing to $1.65.

Earlier this week, Beach Energy advised it was purchasing Senex Energy Ltd (ASX: SXY)'s Cooper Basin business for $87.5 million.

Foolish takeaway

Oil prices being on the move isn't a new phenomenon, with the per barrel price of crude oil crashing 35% between 2019 and 2020.

Investors will be no doubt keeping up with the OPEC+ chats to form an opinion on where oil prices are going. The next couple of days should continue to provide a clearer picture.

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