Crude oil prices steady after Tuesday’s trading—investors left wondering about OPEC+ increased production

Tuesday’s oil trading resulted in minor losses for both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude. Analysts said the small changes in prices was because investors were still weighing the small increase in oil production by OPEC+ countries for November.

They had originally expected the increase to be large and cause a potential supply glut. But the increased production was smaller than anticipated. OPEC+ decided to increase collective oil production by 137,000 barrels per day, starting in November.

As a result, Brent crude futures settled down 2 cents, or 0.03%, to $65.45 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 4 cents, or 0.06%, to $61.73.

Natural gas had a strong day, finishing up 4.50% with a gain of $0.151 to settle at $3.508 MMBtu.

Oklahoma energy stocks were split for the day with about half recording gains and the others recording losses. Empire Petroleum dropped more than 5% while Coterra Energy finished up nearly 3%.