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CALGARY — The continued slide in oil prices is placing increased pressure on key OPEC members to once again intervene in the market and extend the production cuts they had initiated at the start of the year.

Futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate fell again on Thursday below US$48 per barrel, hitting a four-month low of US$47.30 on concerns over high U.S. storage levels. Brent crude also slipped in Thursday trading to just above US$50.

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Market sentiment is also hurt by analysts revising their price outlook to accommodate rising U.S. shale production. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., a Houston-based investment bank, lowered its 2018 outlook for WTI to US$65, down from US$75. Barclays analysts, for their part, predict oil prices will remain in the mid-US$50 range in the second half of 2017.

Other analysts have trimmed their price estimates for 2017 to below US$60 by the end of the year. U.S. oil producers, meanwhile, are expected to boost output by 1.2 million bpd over the year, according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.