Crude oil prices drop on doubts over output cuts, swelling US fuel inventories
NEW YORK: Oil prices fell on Thursday on doubts over the ability of top crude producers to agree to extend record output cuts, heightened by worries over a build in US fuel inventories.
Brent crude futures were down 48 cents, or 1.2 per cent, at $39.31 a barrel by 11:17 a.m. ET (1517 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 74 cents, or 2 per cent, to $36.55.
Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the world’s biggest oil producers, want to extend cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) that major producers agreed to in April. But a suggestion by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ current president Algeria to meet on Thursday was delayed amid talks about poor compliance by some producers.
