NEW YORK, Dec 24 (Bloomberg): Oil extended declines as worries over rising US supplies and the global economy overshadowed signals from OPEC that it may extend or even deepen its pledged output curbs.
Futures fell as much as 1.9 per cent in New York, with US equity index futures also turning lower. Officials from Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates agreed with Saudi Arabia's expectation that the group will extend its cuts for another six months. They will have to contend with US producers, which added 10 oil rigs last week, according to Baker Hughes data, even as the nation's output stays near record high levels.
The UAE's energy minister, while stressing that OPEC and its allies' 1.2 million barrel-a-day reduction will clear a glut in the first quarter, hinted additional curbs could be discussed. But investors remain skeptical. President Donald Trump's trade war with China and the Federal Reserve's rate policy are raising concerns over global economic growth. Oil prices have collapsed more than 40 per cent from a four-year high in early October.
"The main input over the weekend has been the continued intervention by OPEC members," said Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH. "For now, those statements are ignored by the market because we are in this bearish cycle."
West Texas Intermediate for February delivery was at $44.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 68 cents, at 7:50 a.m. local time. The contract lost 0.6 per cent on Friday. Total volume traded Monday was about 20 per cent below the 100-day average.
Brent for February settlement was 46 cents lower at $53.36 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, after declining 11 per cent last week.
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