Investing.com - Crude oil prices eased in Asia on Tuesday with U.S. industry stockpile figures ahead expected to set the tone.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for June delivery traded down 0.17% to $48 a barrel. Brent crude dropped 0.33% to $48.19 a barrel.
The American Petroleum Institute will release estimates of crude and refined product stockpiles at the end of last week late on Tuesday. The figures are followed on Wednesday by more closely-watched data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Overnight, U.S. crude futures retreated from 7-month highs from late last week, as Iran officials showed little signs of abandoning a long-term plan to boost exports, while investors digested a slowing decline in domestic rigs, thrusting concerns of oversupply back into focus.
Energy traders on Monday reacted to comments from Rokneddin Javadi over the weekend when Iran's deputy oil minister sent clearer indications that the Persian Gulf nation will not budge on a current strategy of ramping up exports to pre-sanction levels from 2007.
At its current rate, Javadi said on Sunday that Iran is exporting 2 million barrels of oil per day, approaching a target of 2.2 million bpd by the middle of the summer. Javadi's comments cast further doubts on the likelihood a comprehensive output freeze can be achieved next when OPEC members convene at a highly-anticipated meeting in Vienna.
"Under the present circumstances, the government and the Oil Ministry have not issued any policy or plan to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) towards halting the increase in the production and exports of oil," Javadi told Iran's Mehr news agency.
While expressing skepticism that a production freeze could be achieved last week, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said that global supply is currently exceeding demand by 1.5 million bpd – far above the pace forecasted by a number of leading analysts in the energy industry. Last month, negotiations collapsed at a closely-watched summit in Qatar after Saudi Arabia insisted that Iran take part in any agreement aimed at freezing production.
Investors also continued to react to rig count data from last week for further signals on whether slumping U.S. production could be on the verge of hitting a bottom. Oil services firm Baker Hughes said Friday that U.S. oil rigs were unchanged last week at 318, halting an 8-week streak of weekly declines. The combined Oil and Gas rig count for the week ending on May 13 fell by two to 404, dropping to the lowest level since the series was launched in 1947.