Investing.com - Oil prices declined in North American trade on Tuesday, but came off overnight lows as market players looked ahead to fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products.
The American Petroleum Institute will release its inventories report later in the day, while Wednesday’s government report could show crude stockpiles rose by 3.3 million barrels in the week ended April 1.
Crude oil for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed 19 cents, or 0.53%, to trade at $35.51 a barrel by 13:38GMT, or 9:38AM ET. Prices slumped to a daily low of $35.24 earlier, the weakest level since March 4. On Monday, Nymex oil plunged $1.09, or 2.96%.
U.S. crude futures are down almost 15% since hitting a recent high of $41.90 on March 22. Despite recent losses, prices are still up nearly 35% since falling to 13-year lows at $26.05 on February 11.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for June delivery hit an intraday low of $37.27 a barrel, a level not seen since March 4, before recovering to $37.52, down 17 cents, or 0.45%.
Traders reacted to comments from Kuwait's OPEC governor Nawal Al-Fuzaia, who said earlier that all signs suggest that a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries in Doha on April 17 will result in an initial agreement to freeze output at February levels, or at an average of January and February levels.
The original proposal by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and Venezuela was for a freeze at January levels.
A day earlier, London-traded Brent futures slumped 98 cents, or 2.53%, as investors doubted that oil producing countries would freeze output to address a global glut.
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that the kingdom will not cap output unless Iran and other major producers do so.
Iran has maintained that it will not contribute to any output freeze until its crude exports return to pre-sanction levels, casting doubts over whether a highly awaited production freeze will actually happen.
Brent futures are down almost 12% from their March highs of $42.50 a barrel. Despite recent losses, prices are still up by roughly 40% since briefly dropping below $30 a barrel on February 11.
Short-covering began in mid-February after Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC members Qatar and Venezuela agreed with non-OPEC member Russia to freeze output at January levels, provided other oil exporters joined in.
Meanwhile, Brent's premium to the WTI crude contract stood at $2.01 a barrel, compared to a gap of $1.99 by close of trade on Monday.