Crude prices drifted lower in Asia on Tuesday as wrangling by OPEC members over the details of a proposed output curb continues.
U.S. crude oil fell 0.38% to $46.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark Brent futures were last quoted at $49.01 a barrel.
Late on Monday experts from OPEC nations failed to reach a compromise on the details to curb output by country, Reuters said, setting up a bleak outlook for a final deal when a full meeting starts on Nov. 30. As well, Algerian and Venezuelan oil ministers traveled to Moscow on Monday in a final attempt to persuade Russia to take part in cuts instead of merely freezing output.
Later Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will release its estimates of U.S. crude and refined product inventories at the end of last week. The figures are followed on Wednesday by more closely-watched official data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Overnight, oil prices jumped in choppy trade on Monday after Iraq’s oil minister said he was “optimistic” that Wednesday’s crunch OPEC meeting will yield an agreement on output cuts.
Prices jumped after Iraqi oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said Monday he is “optimistic” that OPEC will reach an agreement that is acceptable to all this week.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is attempting to get its 14 member states, along with non-OPEC member Russia, to implement coordinated production cuts aimed at reducing a global supply glut that has seen oil prices halve in two years.
In September the producer cartel reached an agreement that would reduce production to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels per day.
But reaching an agreement on a deal to cut output has proved problematic, with some producers reluctant to curb production. Over the weekend Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Khalid al-Falih said oil prices will stabilize in 2017 without an intervention from OPEC.
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