LONDON (Reuters): Brent crude oil futures were largely unchanged on Friday while drawn-out Russia-Ukraine peace talks kept geopolitical risks elevated, while traders kept one eye on the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday for clues about potential output changes.
However, US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were frozen after a system outage at exchange operator CME Group.
Traders said they were informed by CME just before 0300 GMT of the halt due to a cooling issue at its CyrusOne data centres, which affected trading of all futures and options contracts on Globex. Brent oil trades on the Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE.
Front-month Brent crude futures for January, which expire on Friday, were down 14 cents, or 0.2%, at US$63.20 a barrel at 1148 GMT. The more active February contract changed hands at US$62.80, down 7 cents.
US West Texas Intermediate crude froze at US$59.08 a barrel, up 43 cents, or 0.73%. There was no settlement on Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
Both contracts are headed for a fourth straight monthly loss, the longest losing streak since 2023, as expectations for higher global supply weighed on prices, despite being up more than 1% for the week.
Refinery margin strength outside of the season was keeping crude demand strong in some places, but the bearish impact from the upcoming oil surplus was pressuring prices, said Rystad analyst Janiv Shah.
A survey of 35 economists and analysts by Reuters showed that they expect Brent to average $62.23 per barrel in 2026, down from October's forecast of $63.15. The benchmark has averaged $68.80 per barrel so far in 2025, according to LSEG data.
Signs that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia might be close pushed oil prices down sharply earlier this week, but they have recovered over the past three sessions as negotiations dragged on.
"The market is caught between there being no immediate sanctions relief for Russia, but as slow as negotiations are, there is hope for a future settlement," said PVM Oil Associates' analyst John Evans.
On Sunday, OPEC+ is likely to leave oil output levels unchanged at its meetings and to agree on a mechanism to assess members' maximum production capacity, two delegates from the group and a source familiar with the group's talks told Reuters.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is expected to lower its January crude price for Asian buyers for a second month to its lowest level for five years, under pressure from ample supplies and the surplus outlook, sources told Reuters on Friday.
- Reporting by Seher Dareen in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Louise Heavens
