Oil falls as non-OPEC yet to pledge concrete output steps

EghtesadOnline: Oil prices extended declines on Monday after non-OPEC producers made no specific commitment to join OPEC in limiting oil output levels to prop up prices, suggesting they wanted the oil producing group to solve its differences first.

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31 October 2016

Officials and experts from OPEC countries and non-OPEC nations including Azerbaijan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Oman and Russia met for consultations in Vienna on Saturday and only agreed to meet again in November before a scheduled regular OPEC meeting on Nov. 30, they said in a statement.

According to Reuters, London Brent crude for December delivery LCOc1 was down 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $49.42 a barrel by 0229 GMT after settling down 76 cents on Friday.

NYMEX crude for December delivery CLc1 was trading down 23 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $48.47 a barrel, after closing down $1.02 on Friday.

"There was a lot of talk and nobody managed to agree on anything. That has been pushing the market down," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA brokerage in Singapore.

The potential tightening of the U.S. presidential race after news of a renewed FBI probe of Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton was also affecting sentiment and putting investors off riskier assets, Halley said.

OPEC and non-OPEC said in a joint statement that Saturday's meeting was a "positive development" towards reaching a global output limiting deal on Nov. 30.

Russia expects to increase its oil output by 0.7 percent next year and a further 0.9 percent in 2018, the draft federal budget showed.

Crude production is seen at a record-high 548 million tonnes in 2017 and 553 million tonnes in both 2018 and 2019, up from an estimated 544 million tonnes this year, the document showed.

The cabinet of the United Arab Emirates approved a 48.7 billion dirham ($13.3 billion) federal budget for 2017, almost steady from 2016, suggesting UAE authorities remain cautious about spending as low oil prices pressure state finances.

Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions for the first time in five weeks in the week ended Oct. 25, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.