Oil tumbles after Saudi Arabia says it increased production

pulse

March 14, 2017 1:27 PM

Crude-oil prices fall after Saudi Arabia says it increased production.

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Oil has tumbled after Saudi Arabia says it increased production.

West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, was down by 2.3% at $47.30 a barrel as of 9:59 a.m. ET. That is its lowest level since late November.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was down by 1.7% at $50.48 a barrel as of 10:02 a.m. ET. That too was a low since late November.

Oil's tumble follows the release of a monthly report by OPEC showing that Saudi Arabia increased production in February back above the level of 10 million barrels a day (to 10.011 million), according to figures submitted by the kingdom. We first spotted this via a tweet from Bloomberg's Javier Blas.

Back on November 30, when the OPEC cartel of oil producers collectively agreed to cut production, the Saudis agreed to cut to 10.058 million barrels a day. The latest increase therefore still keeps production below the agreed-upon number.

"The renewed weakness in oil prices is likely to put more pressure on OPEC members to agree to extend the output cuts beyond June," Tom Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics, wrote. "Indeed, we think it is now more likely than not that there will be some sort of extension to the deal to ensure that stocks are drawn down to more normal levels."

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