Oil Prices Fall as Traders Look Ahead to OPEC Meeting

Investing.com – Oil prices were lower on Thursday amid worry over the potential of increased supply from OPEC.

decreased 0.18% to $66.52 a barrel as of 11:03 AM ET (15:03 GMT). Meanwhile futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., slumped 0.81% to $76.12.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia countries is set to meet in Vienna on June 22 and is expected to decide whether or not to increase supply by one million barrels per day, as OPEC faces losses from Venezuela and Iran.

Total production of OPEC countries rose by 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May to 31.87 million bpd, according to its monthly report.

OPEC has been cutting crude output by 1.8 million bpd to prop up oil prices. The pact began in January 2017 and is set to expire at the end of 2018.

Prices on Thursday were held back despite falling inventories, as rising U.S. crude output worried traders. U.S. crude output has risen 30% in the last two years to 10.9 million barrels per day. The price of oil has been stuck between the rise in U.S. shale and OPEC’s falling production levels.

Meanwhile inventories of fell by 4.143 million barrels for the week ended June 8, well above expectations for a draw of 1.440 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In other energy trading, gasoline futures decreased 1.48% at $2.0891 a gallon, while fell 1.17% to $2.1596 a gallon. was down 0.20% to $2.957 per million British thermal units.

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