Oil pares Doha debacle-led losses, WTI regains $ 40

Oil benchmarks on both sides of Atlantic attempt a gradual recovery mode in the European session, after having dropped more than 5% in the Asian hours on the back of a failure to strike a deal to freeze output.

Oil trims almost half the slide

Currently both crude benchmarks are attempting recovery, with WTI now losing -2.95% at $ 40.50 while the Brent oil drops -2.44% to $ 42.05. Oil prices paused the steep declines seen in the Asian hours and now consolidate the downside, as markets continue to monitor the ongoing headlines surrounding oil output freeze talks.

The black gold slump over 5% earlier on the day after the world’s major oil producers failed to reach an agreement on output freeze at their meeting held in Doha last Sunday. Markets cite the ongoing geo-political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran as the main reason for the Doha debacle. Iran made a last minute decision not to attend, and then OPEC's largest producer, Saudi Arabia pledged not to halt or freeze production unless other major producers joined in.

Going forward, focus now remains on the weekly crude inventory reports from both the API and EIA due later this week, to gauge the next direction in the oil prices.