Investing.com - U.S. oil prices edged down to fresh five-week lows on Friday, as record high U.S. supply data continued to weigh, as well as doubts over the possibility of a production freeze deal by major oil producers.
U.S. crude futures for December delivery were down 0.11% at $44.61 a barrel, just off a fresh five-week low of $44.30 a barrel hit overnight.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, the December Brent contract slipped 0.28% to trade at $46.20 a barrel, close to the five-week trough of $45.97 a barrel hit earlier in the session.
Crude prices were hit after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that crude oil inventories rose by 14.4 million barrels last week, much more than the expected crude-stock gain of 1.0 million barrels.
The commodity also remained under pressure amid growing skepticism over the implementation of a planned deal by OPEC to limit production.
OPEC reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, the 14-member oil group said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the November meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia’s unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.