Oil Pulls Back Sharply On Report OPEC+ To Proceed With Planned Output Increase

(RTTNews) - Following the strong upward move seen in the previous session, the price of crude oil showed a significant move back to the downside during trading on Friday.

Crude for October delivery plunged $2.36 or 3.1 percent to $73.55 a barrel after jumping $1.39 or 1.9 percent to $75.91 a barrel during Thursday's session.

With the sharp pullback on the day, the price of crude oil slumped by 1.7 percent for the week and tumbled by 3.6 percent for the month of August.

The price of crude oil came under pressure after a report from Reuters said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, is set to proceed with a planned oil output hike from October.

While recent demand concerns have weighed on oil prices and raised questions about whether OPEC+ would go ahead with the plan, six sources from the producer group told Reuters the plan to increase production remains in place.

Reuters noted the decision to go ahead with the plan, which will see eight OPEC+ members boost output by 180,000 barrels per day in October, comes amid Libyan outages and pledged cuts by some members.