(New York) Oil prices ended in decline on Monday in a market that doubts the ability of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies in the OPEC agreement to stem the slide in prices .

A barrel of North Sea Brent for January delivery fell 0.74%, closing at $79.98.

Its American equivalent, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) of the same maturity, fell by 0.90%, to 74.86 dollars.

Operators are looking ahead to the OPEC ministerial meeting, postponed by four days, from Sunday to Thursday, against a backdrop of dissension within the cartel.

“There is a good chance that the Saudis will extend their cuts by a million barrels per day (in 2024),” estimates Robert Yawger of Mizuho. “But it’s a bit of déjà vu,” he tempers, Riyadh having started equivalent reductions in July.

As for going further, “I don’t see OPEC coming together and announcing additional cuts” distributed among all its members, warns the analyst.

A report from the Reuters agency on Monday, according to which OPEC was considering a new “collective” reduction in its volumes, was received with caution by the market and did not succeed in recovering prices.

Susannah Streeter of Hargreaves Lansdown said the market “suspects that divisions remain” within the alliance.

“If the group does not announce an additional contraction of one million barrels per day in addition to the renewal of Saudi measures, the risk is to see Brent pass through the floor of 80 dollars which held until here, to fall to 75 or even 70 dollars,” Eurasia Group analysts anticipate.

On Monday, the symbolic threshold of 80 dollars played its supporting role, with Brent moving close to this level during the last hours of the session.

“The problem in the market right now is not supply, it’s demand,” argues Robert Yawger. “The global economy is starting to suffer from high interest rates. And in the event of a slowdown, the most exposed commodity is oil. »