Oil prices have fallen marginally due to increase in US shale output, which has offset production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC countries.
Investors are awaiting the US oil stocks data to be released by industry group API and the Energy Information Administration this week. China is also expected to publish its import and export data.
These two reports could be possible factors to unsettle the crude market.
Brent crude LCOc1 fell by 9 cents to $55.92 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 dropped by 6 cents to trade at $53.14, reported Reuters.
CMC Markets chief market strategist at Sydney Michael McCarthy was quoted by the news agency as saying: “There's a lack of catalysts today possibly… trading is around 25% of normal.
“One could say that with oil holding up when other industrial commodities, equities and gold are weaker is quite a good performance. Everything else has caught the downdraft but oil is holding up.”
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By GlobalDataInternational Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that US shale output is expected to grow at about 1.4 million barrels a day by 2022.
A report by Fitch Ratings stated that average oil prices are expected to remain lower in the next ten months of this year compared with January and February due in increase in US oil drilling.
Earlier, Russia and Iraq said that it is too early to discuss if the output-cut deal among the OPEC countries and non-OPEC members would get extended beyond six months.
OPEC members and some non-OPEC countries such as Russia decided to curb crude output to eliminate global oil glut.