Oil options trading took a sharply bearish turn as the OPEC+ producer group postponed a pivotal output-policy meeting to next week.
About 211,000 Brent crude put options traded on Wednesday, the biggest volume on record, according to ICE Futures Europe data. They also outpaced the trading of bullish contracts by the most since 2020.
On Wednesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies pushed back a meeting planned for this weekend as discussions around output levels — particularly those of West African nations — ran into turbulence. The decision roiled crude futures prices, with benchmark Brent oil futures at one point down by almost 5%, before they pared losses.
Wednesday’s price volatility prompted some traders to seek protection against the risk of a sharp decline in prices, in case no agreement is reached. For Brent, traders are paying the biggest premiums to hedge against a price decline since April as demand for bearish put options surges. That’s in stark contrast to last month, when traders scrambled to buy bullish calls to hedge against the risk of the war between Israel and Hamas expanding to the wider region.
Read More: OIL BAROMETERS: Bearish Brent Options Soar With OPEC+ Delayed
It’s not just prices and volumes that have been impacted by the OPEC+ move though. Several hundred thousand contracts, with prices that would have been exposed to the decisions taken at the meeting that was originally planned for Vienna this weekend, will now expire before the postponed discussions take place.
