Oil prices closed fractionally lower on Monday in a volatile trading session, plunging and then rebounding after Saudi Arabia “categorically” denied a report that Opec was weighing an increase in output that would help to counteract a loss of Russian crude supplies.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled down 0.2 per cent at $87.45. West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, settled 0.4 per cent lower at $79.73.
The prices for each benchmark earlier fell as much as 6 per cent, reaching their lowest levels on an intraday basis since January, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia and other Opec producers were discussing a production increase of up to 500,000 barrels a day for when the group meets in Vienna on December 4.