Oil prices hit fresh four-year lows in wake of Opec meeting

09:05, 29 November 2014

LONDON. KAZINFORM Oil prices hit a four-and-a half-year low in the wake of the decision by the Opec producers' cartel not to cut output.

Brent crude fell $2.43 to $70.15 a barrel on Friday. The last time Brent crude was priced this low was May 2010.

U.S. crude settled down $7.54 at $66.15 a barrel, BBC News reports.

The price of Brent dived by more than $5 a barrel on Thursday after Opec announced no change to its production plans following a meeting in Vienna.

The 12 Opec members decided to maintain production at 30 million barrels per day, as first agreed in December 2011.

Several members of Opec had pushed for a cut in production to boost the price.

But Saudi Arabia, the largest producer within the oil cartel, favoured maintaining production at its current level.

Most members of the oil grouping require an oil price above $80 dollars a barrel to balance their budgets, but Saudi Arabia and some of the gulf states can sustain a lower oil price for a while thanks to state financial holdings and other diversified investments.

"There's a notion that yesterday's selling was overdone, but not everyone is fully back to work yet after Thanksgiving," said John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital in New York.

He predicted the US benchmark oil future would continue to decline further.