LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell further on
Wednesday as traders looked vainly for signs of renewed producer
action to trim surplus supplies.
Benchmark Brent for June loading was trading at $14.46 a
barrel at 1536 GMT, 18 cents down on the day.
The downward pressure was exacerbated by bearish stock data
from the key U.S. market, which revealed big rises in both crude
and product stocks.
Oil prices have been under pressure all week after ministers
from Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela disappointed market
expectations that they would meet to discuss further output
cuts.
A secret Riyadh meeting between the three ministers in March
laid the ground for a groundbreaking pact between OPEC and
non-OPEC producers that pledged to cut back some 1.5 million
barrels per day (bpd) from April 1.
Traders are now poring over output figures to see if
producers are living up to their promises.
A Reuters survey of April output released on Wednesday found
that OPEC producers - who committed to cut some 1.25 million bpd
- had gone some, but not all, of the way to meeting their
promises.
The 10 member nations who pledged cutbacks together shed
some 900,000 bpd of output, or 70 percent of their pledges.
Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, at loggerheads before Riyadh,
both moved quickly to meet their lower allocations.
Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria were all
notable in lagging declared cutback targets, while there were
question marks against Iran, Qatar and Indonesia.
OPEC also got an unwelcome boost to its April production
figures from a 300,000 bpd output rise by Iraq, which was not
party to the cutback agreement.
The market's stubbornly bearish mood was intensified by
figures from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) which showed a
massive 2.2 million barrel rise in crude stocks.
The U.S. gasoline market - which guzzles some 10 percent of
all world oil supply - saw a 100,000 barrel rise in stocks,
according to the DOE.
A strong U.S. gasoline season is seen as crucial to reviving
world oil prices which are still hovering near nine-year lows
below $12 hit before the Riyadh agreement.
Prices in dollars per barrel:
May 6 May 5
(1536 GMT) (close)
IPE June Brent 14.46 14.64
NYMEX June light crude 15.23 15.47 |
