Investing.com – Crude prices were lower on Friday, as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) struggled to come up with an agreement on cutting oil production.
West Texas for January slumped 0.50% to $51.23 a barrel as of 4:54 AM ET (9:54 GMT), after falling nearly 3% on Thursday. Meanwhile futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., dipped 0.45% to $59.78.
OPEC ended its meeting in Vienna on Thursday without coming up with any decision on cutting oil supply, as Iran seeks an exemption from any cuts due to U.S. sanctions which have already weighed on its exports.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said on Friday that he is not confident a deal will be reached.
Oil is down 30% since October amid worry over increased supply as global demand slows.
Oil output from the world’s biggest producers – OPEC, Russia and the United States – has increased by 3.3 million barrels per day (bpd) since the end of 2017, to 56.38 million bpd, meeting almost 60 percent of global consumption.
The output is largely due to the U.S., which exported more crude oil and fuel than it imported for the first time in its record, according to data released by the EIA on Thursday.
Investors are also looking ahead to the weekly U.S. Baker Hughes , which is a leading indicator of demand for oil products, which comes out later in the session.
In other energy trading, fell 1.81% to $1.4156 a gallon, while decreased 1.25% to $1.8352 a gallon. slipped 1.09% to $4.280 per million British thermal units.
–Reuters contributed to this story.
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Source: Investing.com
