Oil futures dropped on Thursday as some traders remained skeptical that OPEC would be in a position to require compliance among all members that they must adhere to a production limit, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch..
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, December West Texas Intermediate crude fell 15 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $45.42 a barrel, retreating from a high of $46.58 a barrel.
On the London ICE Futures Exchange, January Brent crude, the global benchmark, shed 14 cents, or 0.3%, to end trading at $46.49 a barrel.
Hope for a final OPEC production cut have helped to offset price pressure from a third straight weekly increase in crude inventories. The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that U.S. stocks of crude oil jumped 5.3 million barrels last week, although the impact was cushioned by a fall in output and increased capacity utilization by refineries.
“Unless all members adhere to the plan, there are likely downside risks below recent oil price lows,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
Meanwhile, natural gas prices extended their earlier losses after the EIA reported a weekly rise of 30 billion cubic feet in supplies of the fuel—matching expectations of analysts polled by S&P Global Platts.
December natural gas ended at $2.703 per million British thermal units, down 6.1 cents, or 2.2%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.