Yahoo Finance Oil Prices Fall Amid OPEC Production Worries
Investing.com - Oil prices continued to fall on Thursday amid concern global supply and future output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., slumped 1.05% to $79.96 a barrel as of 10:27 AM ET (14:27 GMT).
Meanwhile Crude Oil WTI Futures decreased 1.20% to $70.98 a barrel. Prices were pushed lower this week after an unexpected increase in weekly U.S. crude supplies.
U.S. oil inventories rose by 5.8 million barrels in the week to May 18 to 438.1 million barrels. Analysts had forecast a decline of 1.5 million barrels
Prices were also held back by news that U.S. President Donald Trump called off a planned summit meeting with North Korea.
The White House said in a statement that it would be "inappropriate" to have a planned summit at this time. Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un were set to meet in Singapore on June 12 to discuss possible denuclearization.
Oil prices have jumped over 70% in the last year due to a rise in demand and restricted supply by OPEC.
But OPEC could raise oil output as soon as June after the White House raised concerns that oil prices were too high. OPEC has been cutting crude output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to prop up oil prices. The pact began in January 2017 and is set to expire at the end of 2018.
In other energy trading, Gasoline RBOB Futures decreased 0.58% at $2.2431 a gallon, while heating oil fell 0.67% to $2.2743 a gallon. Natural gas futures inched down 0.037 to $2.912 per million British thermal units.
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