Oil prices rose more than 1% in early trading today, Friday, to compensate for some of its losses, after OPEC and its allies (OPEC Plus) rejected an American call to increase supplies, and agreed to stick to plans for a gradual return to production that had stopped due to the pandemic.
Brent crude rose 82 cents, or just over 1%, to $81.36 a barrel at around 01:46 GMT, after losing about 2% on Thursday.
US crude rose 97 cents, or 1.25%, to $79.78 a barrel, after losing 2.5% in the previous session.
And OPEC Plus agreed at a meeting on Thursday to maintain a gradual increase in production by 400,000 barrels per day each month until the end of December, ignoring US President Joe Biden's call to increase supplies to curb the rise in prices.
Yesterday, the White House warned oil-producing countries against impeding the current global economic recovery, and Deputy White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said that Washington will use all means to ensure that.
The spokeswoman pointed out that OPEC and its allies (OPEC Plus) have the ability to put more oil on the market and influence gasoline prices, while the United States operates according to a system in which oil-producing companies make their decisions on supplies.
Last Sunday, US President Joe Biden, on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty summit in Rome, expressed his regret that "Russia, Saudi Arabia and other major producers refraining from pumping more oil (...) is not fair," directly targeting the "OPEC Plus" alliance.
For his part, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said after the OPEC Plus meeting yesterday, Thursday, that all the countries of the grouping are committed to ensuring the stability of the global oil market, and Novak added that the oil market is recovering.