Crude oil futures were higher in mid-morning trade in Asia Dec. 3, extending overnight gains, as investors turned bullish after OPEC+ chose to proceed on its monthly output hike, in a sign of the group’s belief in firm market fundamentals. At 10:00 am Singapore time (0200 GMT), the ICE February Brent futures contract was up 54 cents/b (0.78%) from the previous close at $70.21/b, while the NYMEX January light sweet crude contract rose 59 cents/b (0.89%) at $67.09/b. The OPEC+ producer group agreed Dec. 2 to raise quotas by 400,000 b/d as planned, shrugging off market jitters over the emergence of omicron and US-coordinated releases from strategic petroleum reserves. However, it stood ready to reconvene “pending further developments of the pandemic, and [to] continue to monitor the market closely and make immediate adjustments if required,” the group’s […]