Oil futures finished with a loss for a second day in a row on Thursday, as the market weighed the likelihood that key producers meeting this weekend will reach a pact to cap output, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
“If there is to be a production freeze, rather than a cut, the impact on physical oil supplies will be limited,” the International Energy Agency said in its closely watched monthly market report released Thursday.
May West Texas Intermediate crude fell 26 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $41.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but traded between a low of $40.84 and a high of $42.16 during the session. For the week, prices were looking at more than a 4% climb.
June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures Exchange lost 34 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $43.84 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that inventories fell by 3 billion cubic feel for the week ended April 8. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a decline of 1 billion to a climb of 3 billion cubic feet.
May natural gas ended at $1.97 per million British thermal units, down 6.6 cents, or 3.2%.
