Oil prices continued to pull back on Tuesday amid investor doubts over what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting later this week might actually achieve.
January light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange
CLF8, -0.48%
was recently down 36 cents, or 0.6% , at $57.75 a barrel. February Brent
LCOF8, -0.16%
was down 23 cents, or 0.4%, at $63.15.
U.S. oil prices settled lower for the first time in four sessions on Monday. That move came as some traders began to question whether Thursdays meeting of OPEC and non-member oil producers will result in an extension to a production deal-cut deal that was hammered out in January. Those production cuts are due to expire in March 2018.
OPEC and Russia may not reach a conclusion on whether to extend supply cuts beyond Marchs deadline until February, said Adrienne Murphy, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. The cartel aims to collect as much data possible, as well as appease reluctant Russia, before it commits to more cuts.
See: OPEC oil ministers will face this dilemma when they meet to extend production cuts
Oil prices have been moving higher in recent sessions after U.S. inventory data that indicated stockpiles are falling, as well as concerns over disruptions to the Keystone pipeline in the U.S. But TransCanada said its Keystone pipeline will resume operations on Tuesday, though at a reduced level to allow a safe and controlled run of service.
West Texas Intermediate crude prices bounced off their worst levels on Monday after a report that oil workers in Brazil are due to strike later this week.
December gasoline
RBZ7, -0.24%
was down 0.3% at $1.784 a gallon, and December heating oil
HOZ7, -0.05%
was steady at $1.946 a gallon.
December natural gas
NGZ17, +1.47%
which expires at Tuesdays settlement, was up 4 cents at $2.963 per million British thermal units, up 1.2%.
