West Texas
Intermediate crude dropped, heading for a second monthly decline, as OPEC kept
its output target unchanged for a third consecutive time and U.S. inventories
climbed to the highest level in 82 years.
Futures
fell as much as 1.5 percent after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries maintained its target of 30 million barrels a day at a meeting in
OPEC has no
formal target for prices, the group’s Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said
at a news conference in
Most member
states also expressed their support for $100 oil. Some, including
Prices also
dropped as the dollar rallied on better-than-forecast reports on
WTI crude
for July delivery declined $1.06, or 1.1 percent, to $92.55 a barrel at 11:10
a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The volume of all futures traded was
38 percent below the 100-day average for this time of day. Prices are down 1.7
percent this week and 1 percent this month.
Brent oil
for July settlement dropped $1.22, or 1.2 percent, to $100.97 a barrel on the
London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Volume for all contracts was 16
percent lower than the 100-day average.