Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled lower on Monday as uncertainty concerning Russia’s willingness to extend output curbs beyond March ahead of the OPEC meeting this week weighed on sentiment.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery fell 1.4% to settle at $58.11 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.65% to trade at $63.88 a barrel.
Despite expectations that OPEC will agree to extend its production cut agreement beyond March at its Nov. 30 meeting, investor doubts grew over whether Russia would agree to join in extending output curbs amid fears that major oil producers, particularly U.S. shale producers, who are not part of the pact will ramp up output to gain market share.
U.S. crude oil production has risen by 15% to 9.66 million barrels per day (bpd) since mid-2016, not far from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, while recent data showing a rise in drilling activity indicated an ongoing increase in US production.
Baker Hughes reported last week that the number of U.S. oil rigs rose by 9 to 747. US rig counts are on track for a monthly gain for the first time since July.
Uncertainty over continued Russia participation in the supply-cut agreements beyond March comes days after Bloomberg reported that Moscow and Riyadh had agreed they should announce an additional period of cuts at the Nov. 30 meeting.
In May, Opec producers agreed to extend production cuts for a period of nine months until March, but stuck to production cuts of 1.2 million bpd agreed in November last year.