Oil Prices Slump as Market Awaits Output Decision from Opec Meeting

Oil Daily, The, July, 2003

Oil prices ended slightly lower on Monday as traders await the new US weekly inventory data on Wednesday and production decisions from the Opec meeting on Thursday.

"Aside from another round of inventory data, Thursday's Opec summit will be a focus for the market," said analyst Tim Evans of IFR Pegasus. "With quotas likely to remain right where they are, the meeting will be a spin-fest, both for the oil ministers attending the conference and analysts trying to ascribe meaning to the event."

September light, sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $30.11/bbl, down 6cents on the day after earlier hitting a session low of $29.60. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, Brent crude settled down 15cents/bbl at $28.03/bbl.

...