Crude oil futures dropped to the lowest settlement in more than a week on Monday, as data suggested a double-digit decline in OPEC’s compliance with the production curb agreement, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
November West Texas Intermediate crude plunged $1.09, or 2.1%, to settle at $50.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
December Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 67 cents, or 1.2%, to end trading at $56.12 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
In a recent poll, Reuters revealed that OPEC’s September output rose by 50,000 barrels a day while the cartel’s overall compliance with the production cut fell to 86%. In August, OPEC reached record monthly compliance of 116%.
“Weak production discipline within OPEC and the cut exemptions for Libya and Nigeria should mean in our view that closely observed OECD stocks will not fall quite as quickly as expected,” said Commerzbank analysts in a recent report.
Meanwhile, November natural gas ended at $2.916 per million British thermal units, down 9.1 cents, or 3%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.