08:39 AM EST, 11/25/2021 (MT Newswires) -- Oil edged down early on Thursday as an OPEC advisory board warned that a move by the United States and five other nations to release more than 60-million barrels of oil from their strategic supplies may lead to a swelling oversupply of crude in the first quarter of next year.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for January delivery was last seen down US$0.15 to US$78.24 per barrel in thin trading because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. January Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down US$0.11 to US$82.14.
OPEC's Economic Commission Board on Thursday warned that a release of 50-million barrels of oil from the country's strategic reserve, along with smaller amounts from China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, could lead to an oversupply of 1.1 million barrels per day in January and February, according to a Bloomberg report.
The report comes ahead of next week's ministerial meeting of the OPEC+ group, which will decide whether to go ahead with a planned quota increase for members of 0.4-million barrels per day, though there are expectations the group will decide to forgo the increase to preserve high prices.
"We expect the OPEC+ alliance will suspend its scheduled 400kb/d increase for January at its meeting next week. This would buffer the market from headwinds to demand, such as renewed travel restriction as a new wave of the pandemic hits Europe and the US. This would see the market in deficit in Q1 and likely support Brent crude prices at USD80/bb," ANZ Bank said in a note.