TOKYO (Reuters) – Brent and U.S. crude futures edged down on Monday, paring gains from a more than 10-percent jump at the end of last week that came amid renewed talk that OPEC might finally agree to cut production to reduce a world glut.
The mood inside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is shifting from mistrust to a growing consensus that a decision must be reached on how to end the global oil price rout, Nigeria’s oil minister told Reuters.
London Brent crude for April delivery was down 54 cents at $ 32.82 a barrel by 0032 GMT. It jumped 3.30 on Friday after a report cited the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister as saying that Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was willing to cooperate on an output cut.
NYMEX crude for March delivery was down 38 cents at $ 29.06 a barrel, after settling up $ 3.23 on Friday. There will be no settlement on Monday for U.S. crude due to the Presidents Day holiday, and trading may be thinner than usual.
Iran is exporting 1.3 million barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil, and will be pumping 1.5 million barrels a day by the start of the next Iranian year on March 20, a vice-president was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Iran will load 4 million barrels of crude oil on tankers destined for Europe in the coming 24 hours, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday, including 2 million barrels to be bought by France’s Total.
The market was waiting for Chinese trade data for January due later in the day.
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Joseph Radford)
