West Texas Intermediate futures were down 26 cents at $44.64 a barrel. "Long suffering oil bulls will now turn nervously to the U.S. EIA's commercial crude inventory numbers," OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said. "It was an unexpected undershoot in these numbers last week that set off the rally in crude last week. "Rather than talking about capping oil production as it was planning to do at the end of September, OPEC would be better advised to think about reversing the production growth of recent months," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.OPEC members are due to meet informally in Algeria this month on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum (IEF). Russia is also expected to attend the IEF.The chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation visited the port of Zueitina on Wednesday and said he would work to lift force majeure there, according to the head of a guard force in control of the terminal.NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said Libyan production could be raised to 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) from about 290,000 bpd within a month.

Source: The Star September 14, 2016 12:56 UTC