* Saudi, Venezuela meeting ends with few signs of price
boost
* Supply overhang concerns bear down on prices
* Speculators place largest bullish bet on Brent crude since
2011
(Adds latest market moves)
By Devika Krishna Kumar
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a third
straight session on Monday, with U.S. prices piercing $30 a
barrel again, as lingering concerns about oversupply deepened
after a Saudi-Venezuela meeting at the weekend showed few signs
of coordination to boost prices.
No tangible signs emerged from a meeting on Sunday between
Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi and his Venezuelan
counterpart that OPEC and non-OPEC suppliers were ready to meet
to discuss the price slump.
Hopes of an accord to shore up prices which are languishing
close to 2003 have dimmed over the past week, but the meeting
between cash-strapped Venezuela and the kingpin of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was seen as
"make or break" for a possible deal to boost prices that have
slumped 70 percent since mid-2014.
Venezuela's oil minister Eulogio Del Pino, who was on a tour
of oil producers to lobby for action to prop up prices, said his
meeting with Naimi was "productive."
"But does 'productive' mean less production? The market
thinks not, at least right now," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at
Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy
Management Institute in New York, said the possibility of a
production cutting deal was "quickly fading into the sunset" and
traders and investors were "once again left to focus on the
reality of the oversupplied global market."
Brent crude LCOc1 was down 84 cents, or 2.5 percent, at
$33.22 a barrel by 1:56 p.m. EST (1856 GMT), paring a fall of
more than 3 percent earlier in the session.
U.S. crude CLc1 sank 94 cents, or 3.04 percent, to $29.93
a barrel, also trimming losses after a drop of more than 4
percent earlier.
U.S. equities were also lower, punished by persistent fears
about the global economic slowdown, while the U.S. dollar also
remained under pressure. FRX/
While U.S. investors have trimmed their bullish crude bets,
data on Monday showed investors in ICE's Brent crude now hold
their biggest net long position since records began in 2011.
CFTC/
France's Total TOTF.PA has, meanwhile, agreed to buy
160,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude for delivery in
Europe, official news agency SHANA quoted Iranian Oil Minister
Bijan Zanganeh as saying, showing Tehran's determination to claw
back lost market share after the lifting of nuclear sanctions
against the OPEC producer.