MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - World oil prices are falling amid fears of an oversupply coming from non-OPEC countries, Monday trading results showed.
"Oil prices may decline further until we get some comments from OPEC that they will cut production," Bloomberg quoted Newedge Group energy trading manager Ken Hasegawa as saying Monday.
The cost of Brent crude December futures fell by 0.28 percent to $85.89 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures for December delivery have fallen by 0.06 percent are trading at $80.96 per barrel.
Oil prices are down because investors are expecting a growth in supply from non-OPEC countries, which could possibly exceed demand. It is expected that the increase in oil production in countries such as Azerbaijan and Brazil will lead to an excess of supply of oil in the market in 2015.
Market uncertainty can be also explained by investors' expectations of the OPEC meeting scheduled for November. At its annual meeting in Vienna on November 27, OPEC members have to decide whether they will go on reducing production against a background of worsening consumption forecasts and a significant increase in global oil production.
OPEC is an international organization established in 1960 to coordinate crude oil sales and pricing. Its original members were Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but they were joined later by Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Gabon and Angola.
The organization’s members control about two-thirds of the planet's known oil deposits. OPEC handles 40 percent of the world's oil production and 50 percent of global oil exports.
