Oil prices fell on Monday, with Brent dropping after four days of gains, as investors and traders awaited crucial talks by OPEC+ following disagreement within the group that could lead to major producers pumping up volumes to grab market share.
Brent crude was down by 40 cents, or 0.5%, at $75.77 a barrel by 0131 GMT, after falling 1 cent last week, the first weekly decline in six.
U.S. oil was down by 30 cents, or 0.4%, at $74.86 a barrel, having risen 1.5% last week, the sixth consecutive week of gains for the contract. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, voted on Friday to increase production by about 2 million barrels a day from August to December 2021 and to extend the remaining output cuts to the end of 2022, but objections from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prevented an agreement.
It was a rare public disagreement between members of the group, with national interests increasingly diverging, which is impacting OPEC+ policy as oil users want more crude as their economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, energy companies increased oil and natural gas rigs for a third week out of the last four.
