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“The past weeks’ back and forth of diplomacy reveals how small the common denominator is,” Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich, said by e-mail. “Chances for a deal are high but we remain skeptical that it has teeth and see no lasting impact on prices.”

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery dropped as much as 92 cents to US$45.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at US$45.68 as of 12 p.m. London time. Prices lost US$1.90 to US$46.06 a barrel on Friday. Total volume traded Monday was 67 per cent higher than the 100-day average.

Brent for January settlement fell as much as 96 cents, or 2 per cent, to US$46.28 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract dropped 3.6 per cent to US$47.24 on Friday. The global benchmark traded at a US$1.20 premium to WTI.

Saudi Stance

Cutting output is not the only option available to OPEC; it can also depend on a recovery in consumption from countries such as the U.S. to steady the market, Al-Falih said in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, according to local newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

Russia has so far resisted requests to join a cut, offering instead to freeze production at current levels. Energy Minister Alexander Novak has insisted that OPEC reach an internal consensus on output curbs before Russia considers joining an accord.

Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Boutarfa, architect of the preliminary agreement reached in Algiers, will travel to Moscow Monday with his Venezuelan counterpart before meeting Iraq’s oil minister on Tuesday in Vienna, two OPEC delegates said. He presented a proposal Saturday to Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh for an OPEC output cut of 1.1 million barrels a day, according to an Iranian Oil Ministry official.

Bloomberg.com