Oil prices fell on Monday amid growing doubts over whether a production-cut deal can be implemented among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members.
The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery lost $1.84 to settle at $46.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery decreased $1.41 to close at $48.30 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, Xinhua news agency reported.
OPEC officials approved a document outlining their long-term strategy on Monday, a sign that its members are achieving a consensus on managing production.
However, analysts said OPEC has so far achieved little otherwise, which triggered market concerns that the group may fail to implement its planned output cut with countries including Iran and Iraq opposing such move.
Iraqi oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said last week that the country, second largest producer in OPEC, wanted to be exempt from output curbs as it needed more money to fight Islamic State militants.
OPEC agreed last month to cut oil production to 32.5 million barrels a day from current level of 33.24 million barrels a day to boost the market. The group will agree concrete levels of output by each country at its next formal meeting in November.
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