Oil fell around 3 percent on Monday after Iran dashed hopes of a coordinated production freeze any time soon, returning bearish sentiment over a supply glut that has sent prices crashing.
Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell back below $40 a barrel, trading at $39.27 at 1308 GMT, down $1.12 on Friday’s close. Brent hit a 12-year low of $27.10 in January.
U.S. crude CLc1 was down $1.09 at $37.41 a barrel.
“Oil is down because Iran said they would only join the output freeze group once they reached production of 4 million barrels a day,” said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.
He was referring to comments by Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh on Sunday that the OPEC member would join discussions after its output reached that level.
Iran’s oil exports are due to reach 2 million bpd in the Iranian month that ends on March 19, up from 1.75 million in the previous month, he said.
Zanganeh met Russian counterpart Alexander Novak in Tehran on Monday but talks focused on long-running discussions about an oil and gas swap mechanism.
via Reuters
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