Under the effect of lower volumes and doubts about OPEC's ability to maintain production discipline, oil prices fell slightly on Monday.

A barrel of Brent North Sea oil for September delivery closed at $75.16 in London, down 39 cents or 0.51%. In New York, the barrel of WTI for August also recorded a slight decline of 46 cents or 0.61%, to 74.10 dollars. In the middle of last week, the plunge in US crude inventories helped support the market, but the effect has since faded and the market lacks news that could guide it. There remains the psychodrama of OPEC and OPEC+, whose members have still not managed to agree on a possible increase in production since the failure of a meeting ten days ago.

If the impasse in which the Organization of the Petroleum Producing Countries finds itself had initially boosted oil prices, Louise Dickson of the firm Rystad Energy believes that it has now sown enough confusion and dissonance so that the market no longer has complete confidence in the ability of the alliance to keep prices rising. In the absence of an agreement, several member countries could thus unilaterally increase their production, weakening prices. Added to this are the recent figures published by China, which show a slowdown in economic activity.