Oil Prices Fall as Market Awaits OPEC Intervention

Oil prices edged down on Monday amid growing indications of noncooperation among OPEC members after the group's deal to reduce supply and market speculation that any benefit the oil market has gained from the agreement has already been priced in.

U.S. crude futures lost 41 cents or 0.81%, settling down at $49.94 a barrel while Brent crude futures shed 43 cents or 0.83% down to $51.52 a barrel. Gasoline futures posted a smaller decline, inching down 0.08% at $1.4924 a gallon. Diesel futures also settled down 1.12 cents or 0.71% to $1.15561 a gallon.

While OPEC's plan to cut production last month has lifted oil markets in the recent weeks, its lack of details on how much each participating nation will be required to cut and conflicts over how the cartel computes countries' production is seen to hamper the deal.

On Monday, Ali Kardor, managing director of National Iranian Oil Co. deemed output estimates compiled by OPEC to be unacceptable, adding that Iran has produced than what the cartel has reported in the previous month.

News are provided by InstaForex