Oil prices fell on Monday on expectations of warmer weather in the United States’s north-east, as traders digested comments from the Group of Seven (G7) finance meeting at the weekend, dealers said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March fell 40 cents to $46,08 a barrel in electronic deals.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in March dropped 37 cents to $43,52 a barrel.
Traders were examining the final statement from the G7 meeting of finance officials and central bank chiefs, who called on oil-producing countries to increase oil output and consumers to raise energy efficiency.
”We recognised the importance of raising medium-term energy supply, of energy efficiency, and of the importance of technology and innovation in ensuring energy security,” the G7 said on Saturday in a communiqué that ended the two-day summit.
Meanwhile, traders were reassured by forecasts of milder weather in the north-eastern US — which accounts for about 80% of the country’s heating oil consumption.
”In our current predictions, it shows warmer conditions [in the north-east of the United States],” said Eswaran Ramasamy, a Singapore-based director of energy information provider Platts. ”So this is putting some downward pressure.”
The focus will now be on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) output policies, Eswaran said.
Opec is due to hold a teleconference in five weeks’ time, when it is likely to cut production to prevent prices falling sharply as the northern-hemisphere summer approaches and demand drops off.
The teleconference is an unusual step for the 11-member cartel and is in addition to the group’s next ministerial meeting on March 16 in Isfahan, Iran.
During its Vienna meet at the end of last month, Opec agreed to maintain ”currently agreed production levels” of 27-million barrels per day. — Sapa-AFP