Oil falls to worst monthly loss in a decade on mixed signals

Oil prices dipped on Friday to their deepest monthly decline since 2008 on concerns about oversupply and global growth, coupled with the confusion over whether the OPEC and its allies, including Russia, will cut production.  

By 10:05 pm Riyadh local time, Brent Crude futures were down 1.38 percent to $58.69 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were down by 0.97 percent to $50.95 a barrel.

On Friday, OPEC’s Economic Commission Board suggested a 1.3 million-barrel cut to daily output to stabilize prices, Bloomberg reported.

On the other hand, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian news agency TASS that ‘the current price range is comfortable for producers and consumers’.

“The spike up to $86 (per barrel) was short-term, largely driven by the Iran factor. Now the prices have retreated, although uncertainty around Iran remains to some extent,” he said.

Earlier, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data on Wednesday showed that the US crude oil inventories rose by 4.9 million barrels to 446.91 million barrels last week, its highest level since December.

“As long as there's lingering uncertainty around how much OPEC will reduce production no clear trend will be able to form,” said Konstantinos Anthis, Head of Research at ADS Securities in his daily report.