Oil down on doubts over deal

Financial and commodity markets analytics

The oil price is down over 3 percent today as OPEC's members struggled to agree on a deal to cut production in order to boost the price.

Iran and Iraq appear to be the main culprits in cutting a deal and seem to be at opposite sides of the table with Saudi Arabia before tomorrow’s meeting in Austria.

"Iran and Iraq are refusing to cut, simply reaching the high end of the Algiers range will require greater cuts from other members, namely Saudi Arabia, which may be difficult politically," analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a report.

If an agreement is not reached tomorrow some say the oil price could plunge below the $40 a barrel mark and remain subdued for some time.

Even if a deal is hatched out tomorrow and the price of oil rises, some predict that it will be short lived as more oil drillers from countries such as the US will appear, which will again create an oversupply and drive the price down,

“Higher oil prices means non-OPEC producers will be more encouraged to drill for more oil, which will increase global supply and prices will be depressed again,” said Gao Jian, an energy analyst at SCI International.