Reuters - Oil prices
fell below $50 on Friday, on track for their biggest weekly loss in six weeks,
on doubts about OPEC's planned output cut and ahead of U.S. rig count
data that
has steadily increased in the last few months.
Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries experts and counterparts from non-member
producers such as Russia started two-day negotiations on Friday in Vienna on
limiting output to curb a global glut that has weighed on markets for two
years.
As of late
Friday in Vienna, officials had yet to agree on details on the plan to reduce
output to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels per day, with Iran
opposing, sources said.
Russia, which
has postponed its own domestic production-cut meeting, expects a quick recovery
in U.S. shale oil activity so that an output freeze could be short-lived,
Interfax news agency reported.
Brent crude
futures LCOc1 were down 48 cents at $49.99 a barrel by 12:11 a.m. EDT (1211
ET). The contract had hit a session low of $49.89.
U.S. West
Texas Intermediate CLc1 crude was down 52 cents at $49.20 a barrel after
hitting a low of $49.10.
Oil prices
briefly pared losses when Wall Street stocks .SPX hit a session high, but the
benchmarks are still set to show a 3 percent drop for the week, the biggest
loss since mid-September.
A weekly
reading on the U.S. oil rig count is expected at 1 p.m. EDT (1300 ET). Oil
services company Baker Hughes, which issues the data, has reported steady rig
rates or additions for 17 weeks. Active U.S. oil rigs rose by 11 last week.
[RIG/U]
"Clearly
the prices for crude oil have risen high enough that a lot of producers, shale
producers, did put on hedges," said David Thompson, executive vice
president of Washington commodities broker Powerhouse.
Prices rose as
much as 13 percent after Sept. 27, when OPEC announced its first planned output
reduction in eight years. The cartel is expected to meet on Nov. 30 to hash out
how much each individual member should cut.
Russia will
organize a gathering of domestic oil producers a week before the OPEC meeting,
industry sources said.
A source close
to one of the companies said the meeting had been postponed from Nov. 9 after
discussions involving Igor Sechin, who heads Russian state producer Rosneft and
is known for his anti-OPEC stance.
Reuters
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