Oil craters to its lowest level since November

pulse

May 4, 2017 2:31 PM

Oil prices collapse to their lowest levels since November after Russia says it hasn't made a decision about extending cuts yet.

Oil prices have sunk to their lowest level since November 2016 after Russia said it hasn't yet made a decision about extending cuts.

WTI crude, the US benchmark, is down by 4.3% at $45.77 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, is down by 3.8% at $48.83 per barrel as of 1:01 p.m. ET.

Below, a chart of WTI crude:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier Thursday in a conference call with reporters that "no decision has been made yet" regarding whether Russia will extend its agreement with OPEC and non-OPEC countries to cut production.

Under the original deal, Russia said it would cut average daily production by 300,000 barrels per day.

The Russian ruble, which has historically closely tracked oil prices, also tumbled on Thursday. The petrocurrency is down by about 1.7% at 58.3411 per US dollar as of 1:00 p.m. ET.

Members of the oil cartel will be meeting in Vienna at the end of May to decide whether to extend their production cuts.

Separately, data from the Energy Information Administration released Wednesday showed US crude output jumped to 9.29 million barrels per day — the highest since August 2015. Moreover, crude inventories fell by 930,000 barrels per day, less than analysts' forecasts of 2.3 million.

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