The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC Plus) have announced a cut in production for October for the first time in a year.

The 23 countries had agreed to produce 100,000 barrels (barrels of 159 liters) less oil per day in October than in September, the group said in Vienna on Monday after a virtual ministerial meeting.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

The oil countries referred to falling oil prices because of fears of a global recession.

The price of oil had fallen significantly again in the past few weeks, from more than $120 in June to less than $100 a barrel for North Sea Brent.

At times it was last at less than 92 dollars.

The main reason given on the markets was recession concerns.

The expensive dollar also tended to depress the price of oil.

Oil price rises again

Around the OPEC meeting, the oil price recovered to a good 96 dollars at times.

Helima Croft, Opec expert at bank RBC Capital Marktes, said: "It cannot be ruled out that the OPEC group will try to lower the price limit."

Giovanni Staunovo, oil analyst at Swiss bank UBS, commented: "As Europe reduces its imports from Russia and sales from the American oil reserve are phased out, we expect the oil market to tighten in the coming months." He expects that the price of oil will rise again to $125 a barrel by the end of the year.

The somewhat lower oil price had fueled hopes that inflation could also ease off somewhat.

Gasoline prices in Germany also fell at times due to the somewhat cheaper crude oil, before the end of the tank discount caused them to rise again significantly.

Most recently, according to figures from the Clever Tanken internet portal, a liter of Super E10 cost an average of 2.014 euros, diesel an average of 2.158 euros.

Heating oil is unusually expensive right now

According to figures from the internet portal Heizoel24, heating oil costs around 170 euros per 100 liters.

That's an unusual amount.

This is also said to be related to the fact that many companies are stocking up on switching their production from natural gas to heating oil.

On the financial markets there had been speculation for a long time as to how long the oil states would watch the oil price fall before reacting with production cuts.

So far, the states had increased production month by month in order to make more oil available again when the global economy picked up again after the lockdowns.