Crude oil futures pare losses on OPEC uncertainty

Forex Pros – Crude oil futures pared losses on Monday, retreating from a daily low as an upcoming meeting of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries created uncertainty over the direction of oil prices.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at USD100.02 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, shedding 0.53%.     

It earlier fell as much as 1.6% to trade at a daily low of USD98.81 a barrel. 

Markets were awaiting Wednesday's meeting in Vienna of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to see whether the group decides to increase its current output quota. 

The world’s largest oil producer and exporter Saudi Arabia said it would push for an increase in supplies, but was likely to face opposition from fellow OPEC members.

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi said in an industry conference in Singapore over the weekend that OPEC needed to increase production by “at least one million barrels a day”.

However, Iran's deputy petroleum minister, Ahmed Ghalehbani, said Monday that his country was "okay" with current oil output levels, and that Iran's stance at the OPEC meeting will be to hold production quotas at current levels. Iran is the largest crude producer among OPEC members.

Algeria's energy minister Youcef Yousfi said on Sunday he did not expect OPEC to raise oil output, while Qatar’s oil minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said on Friday that there was “no noticeable urgency” for the group to boost production.  

Meanwhile, lingering concerns over Middle East turmoil continued to support prices. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was recovering from an operation in neighboring Saudi Arabia after leaving the country to receive medical treatment to injuries received in an attack on his compound on Friday.

Crude’s earlier losses came as worries over the pace of the U.S. economic recovery added to concerns over a slowdown in demand from the world’s largest user.

 

Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for July delivery fell 0.68% to trade at USD115.20 a barrel, up USD15.18 on its U.S. counterpart.

ForexPros.com - Forex Pros offers a diverse set of professional tools for Forex, Futures and CFDs. These include real-time data streams, technical and fundamental analysis by in-house experts, and a widely used economic calendar and

.