Crude oil prices briefly traded at $80 a barrel on Wednesday as the market judged this week’s move by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production as “too little, too late”.

In intra-day trading, US West Texas Intermediate on Wednesday reached the $80 a barrel mark. It closed at $79.91 a barrel, up $1.68, or 2.2 per cent, on the day and above the previous high of $78.77 reached last month.