StockBeat: Oil Majors Struggle as COP, ECB Overshadow OPEC

 It’s been a tough week for the oil and gas sector.

The price of its main commodity has risen by over $2 - nearly 4% - as the cartel that produces over 40% of the world’s output has moved toward a significant tightening of its policy, but the share prices of Europe’s big names are mostly down on the week, reflecting a growing number of longer-term concerns. The big four European majors are all down on the week, by between 0.6% and 2.6% For one thing, there’s the worry about whether the action agreed by OPEC and allies led by Russia will actually be enough to stop a fresh glut on world markets next year. The ‘OPEC ’ grouping has reportedly agreed to take another 500,000 barrels a day of oil off the market through the end of 2020, but whether that will be enough to offset rising production in Brazil, Norway and – the big wild card – U.S. shale is far from clear - especially if the U.S.'s attritional trade war with China continues to depress world oil demand.