Oil prices fall amid high Libyan output
By Gunay Camal
Crude prices decreased on May 2 as a recovery in Libyan output and rising U.S. supplies raised worries that OPEC-led production cuts may not significantly cut the supplies to the market.
Oil has been weighed down by the market's impatience with the slow pace of inventory drawdown globally, even after major oil producers agreed to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day for the first half of 2017.
London Brent crude for July delivery LCOc1 was down 6 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $51.46 by 0227 GMT, after settling down 53 cents on Monday. Brent crude has risen only around $1 from a one-month low of $50.45 hit on Thursday that came after the restart of two key Libyan oilfields, Reuters reported.
NYMEX crude for June delivery CLc1 was down 9 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $48.75.
Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the output has risen above 760,000 barrels per day to its highest since December 2014, with plans to keep boosting production.
Earlier, NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said that Libya plans to bring its oil production to 1.1 million barrels per day by August 2017.
Alongside with Iran and Nigeria, Libya was exempt from the OPEC oil output cut deal reached in late 2016 in Vienna.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and participating non-OPEC countries meet on May 25 to discuss whether to extend the coordinated curbs in production into the second half of the year.
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