Oil Stock Markets
Oil prices fell on Wednesday on doubts OPEC and Russia will agree on extending a crude production cut that the market has already priced in, and after a report of an unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil inventories.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.69 a barrel at 0543 GMT, down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent below their last settlement.
Traders said WTI was pulled lower by a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) late on
Tuesday that showed U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 24 to 457.3 million barrels.
Official U.S. oil inventory data is due later on Wednesday.
WTI was also weighed down by the gradual restart on Tuesday of the Keystone pipeline, which supplies Canadian crude to the United States.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.17 a barrel, down 44 cents, or 0.7 percent.
Oil prices have received a broad lift this year, with Brent up by 40 percent since mid-2017, due to an effort by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of other producers, led by Russia, to withhold 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of output.
The deal expires in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 and is expected to discuss ways of extending the cut.
Many analysts say an extension is needed to balance oil markets, and also to keep the economies of oil exporting nations afloat. Yet not all analysts agree.
Given the agreement doesn't expire for another four months, adding an additional nine months on that to the end of 2018 seems unnecessarily eager given the market does seem to be rebalancing.
Beyond cutting supplies, a healthy global economy has been helping oil markets back into balance after years of oversupply.
U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said global economic growth was likely to gain momentum and breadth in 2018.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.69 a barrel at 0543 GMT, down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent below their last settlement.
Traders said WTI was pulled lower by a report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) late on
Tuesday that showed U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 24 to 457.3 million barrels.
Official U.S. oil inventory data is due later on Wednesday.
WTI was also weighed down by the gradual restart on Tuesday of the Keystone pipeline, which supplies Canadian crude to the United States.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.17 a barrel, down 44 cents, or 0.7 percent.
Oil prices have received a broad lift this year, with Brent up by 40 percent since mid-2017, due to an effort by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of other producers, led by Russia, to withhold 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of output.
The deal expires in March 2018, but OPEC will meet on Nov. 30 and is expected to discuss ways of extending the cut.
Many analysts say an extension is needed to balance oil markets, and also to keep the economies of oil exporting nations afloat. Yet not all analysts agree.
Given the agreement doesn't expire for another four months, adding an additional nine months on that to the end of 2018 seems unnecessarily eager given the market does seem to be rebalancing.
Beyond cutting supplies, a healthy global economy has been helping oil markets back into balance after years of oversupply.
U.S. bank Morgan Stanley said global economic growth was likely to gain momentum and breadth in 2018.
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