Investing.com - Crude prices drifted turned weaker in Asia on Monday in an expected light trading day with the U.S. and Canada on public holidays with comments out of the G-20 summit in China eyed for demand cues.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in October dipped 0.07% to $44.12 a barrel. On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for November delivery dropped 0.81% to $46.45 a barrel.
In the week ahead, oil traders will be focusing on U.S. stockpile data on Wednesday and Thursday for fresh supply-and-demand signals. The reports come out one day later than usual because of Monday's Labor Day holiday.
Last week, oil futures snapped a four-day losing streak on Friday, amid Russian comments favoring a production freeze, but still suffered a hefty decline for the week amid ongoing concerns over a global supply glut.
Traders also assessed the likelihood of an interest rate hike at this month's Federal Reserve meeting, following weaker than expected nonfarm payrolls data.
Oil prices strengthened on Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Bloomberg that an agreement between major oil exporters to freeze output would be the right decision to support the market.
His comments followed similar rhetoric from Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, who reportedly said on Thursday that some sort of a production agreement could be made between OPEC and non-OPEC producers at this month's meeting.
OPEC members are set to discuss a potential production cap at an informal meeting on the sidelines of an energy conference in Algeria between September 26-28.
Despite the supportive remarks, chances that the upcoming meeting in late September would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal, according to market experts. Instead, most believe that oil producers will continue to monitor the market and possibly postpone freeze talks to the official OPEC meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30.
An attempt to jointly freeze production levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran's refusal to take part of the initiative, underscoring the difficulty for political rivals to forge consensus.
Meanwhile, market players continued to focus on U.S. drilling prospects, amid indications of a recent recovery in drilling activity. Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week rose by 1 to 407, marking the ninth increase in 10 weeks.
Some analysts have warned that the recent rally in prices could be self-defeating, as it encourages U.S. shale producers to drill more, underlining concerns over a global supply glut.