Investing.com - Crude oil prices were sharply lower in North American trade on Wednesday, giving up overnight gains after Russia ruled out any proposals to deepen the OPEC-led production cuts.
Russia wants to continue with the current deal and any further supply curbs would send the wrong message to the market, according to government officials.
In May, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
But so far the production-cut agreement has had little impact on global inventory levels due to rising supply from producers not participating in the accord, such as Libya and Nigeria, and a relentless increase in U.S. shale oil output.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract was at $46.23 a barrel by 6:55AM ET (1055GMT), down 81 cents, or around 1.7%. It touched its highest since June 7 at $47.32 in overnight trade.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for September delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London fell 74 cents, or about 1.5%, to $48.87 a barrel, after hitting a one-month high of $49.90 earlier.
Trade volumes were thin on Tuesday, as U.S. markets remained closed for the Independence Day holiday.
The commodity notched an eighth-straight session of gains on Monday, the longest such streak of wins for U.S. crude since January 2010, as investors cheered fresh signals of a decline in U.S. crude production.
Investors now looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT) later on Wednesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Thursday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.8 million barrels.
The reports come out one day later than usual due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Tuesday.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for August declined 1.9 cents, or 1.3%, to $1.509 a gallon, while August heating oil slumped 1.6 cents to $1.496 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for August delivery rose 4.1 cents to $2.992 per million British thermal units.