Investing.com - Oil prices slipped on Tuesday in Asia and traded near their lowest levels in more than a year amid growing concerns of an oversupply in the market.
Crude Oil WTI Futures for January delivery edged down 0.4% to $51.41 a barrel at 12:33 AM ET (05:33 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent Oil Futures for February delivery also slipped 0.3% to $60.41 per barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange.
Citing an industry source, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia raised oil production to an all-time high in November and pumped around 11.1-11.3 million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies are set to meet in Austria next week, and they're expected to announce that output will be reduced.
This week’s G20 summit is another major focus for market watchers, who will see if U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping can de-escalate the U.S.-China trade war.
In recent months, Trump has put pressure on his political ally Saudi Arabia, OPEC's de-facto leader, not to cut production.
On Monday, Dow Jones reported that Saudi Arabia and OPEC planned to announce an extension of current cuts and quotas from 2016 into 2019. The group hopes that the cuts will keep the U.S. president from tweeting that there should be no reduction in supplies.
"It will be still a big cut but less pronounced," a senior Saudi oil advisor told Dow Jones. OPEC had floated a 1.4 million bpd cut before Trump started pushing back.
"Oil is on a slippery slope," said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Swiss bank Julius Baer.
Ruecker said the weak sentiment "follows a surprisingly swift and pronounced change in the market mood from shortage fears to glut concerns," while the world economy was also slowing down.