Oil fell to the lowest level in more than six years amid speculation that a record global glut will be prolonged after OPEC effectively abandoned its longtime strategy of limiting output to control prices.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep pumping about 31.5 million barrels a day, President Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said Friday after a meeting in Vienna. The group is setting aside its output quota of 30 million barrels a day, a target it's breached the past 18 months, until members gather again in June. Declines accelerated as the dollar rose as a strengthening U.S. economy bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
Oil has slumped more than 40 percent since Saudi Arabia led OPEC's decision in November 2014 to maintain output and defend market share against higher-cost U.S. shale producers. Global stockpiles have expanded to almost 3 billion barrels as the Saudis, Russia and Iraq increased supply, according to the International Energy Agency.
Equity Rout
West Texas Intermediate for January delivery sank $2.39, or 6 percent, to $37.58 a barrel at 1:04 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $37.57, the lowest since February 2009. The volume of all futures traded was 58 percent above the 100-day average.
"The OPEC meeting reinforces that the market needs to rebalance itself and it ain't going to happen quickly," Mike Wittner, head of oil-market research in New York at Societe Generale AG.
