(FE)
Oil prices remained weak on Monday as a relentless rise in U.S. drilling undermined an OPEC-led push to tighten supply. Brent crude futures were trading at $52.10 per barrel at 0150 GMT, down 5 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures remained below $50, down 8 cents at $49.72. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-OPEC producers agreed last week to extend a pledge to cut production by around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the first quarter of 2018. But the decision did not go as far as many investors had hoped.
An initial agreement, which has been in place since January, would have expired in June this year. Despite the ongoing cuts, oil prices have not risen much beyond $50 per barrel. Much of OPEC’s success will depend on output in the United States <C-OUT-T-EIA>, which is not participating in the cuts and where production has soared 10 percent since mid-2016 to over 9.3 million bpd, close to top producer levels Russia and Saudi Arabia.
