Oil prices slump after Doha meeting fails to yield result on production freeze between Saudi Arabia-led Opec and Iran
Oil prices plunged this morning, after some of the world's biggest producers failed to reach an agreement over freezing production during a historic meeting in Doha yesterday.
The stand-off sent oil prices down this morning. WTI Crude oil fell by more than five per cent to $38.30 early Monday morning, while Brent was down more than five per cent to $40.90.
Asian equities also fell: the Nikkei was down -3.4 per cent, while the Hang Seng was down 1.34 per cent and the Shangai Composite dropped 1.36 per cent.
The meeting was widely seen as critical to resolving the ongoing issues around the falling price of oil, which has been exacerbated by a glut of the black stuff on the market.
Officials from Opec, Russia and other major oil producers gathered yesterday to discuss the possibility of production being frozen for the next six months.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are thought to be at the crux of the stalemate.
Saudi Arabia had reportedly told participants it wanted all of the cartel's members to take part in an oil freeze deal – but Iran had repeatedly refused to freeze oil output.
And as it turned out, Iran didn't even turn up to the meeting, which meant while the world might have been hoping for movement, analysts weren't that surprised that nothing happened.