Investing.com - Crude oil prices fell in early Asia on Monday after Saudi Arabia said at the weekend it would not cut output to prop up oil markets even if non-OPEC nations did so.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil futures for February delivery traded at $57.01 a barrel, down 1.49%, in the Asian morning.
Last week, oil prices surged as some traders took profits on short positions after prices this week hit their lowest since 2009.
Brent's front-month settled up $2.11, or 3.4%, at $61.38 a barrel, after closing twice this week below the psychologically key level of $60, and continued to rise as high as $62.66 in post-settlement trade on Friday.
WTI's front-month crude settled up $2.41 at $56.52 a barrel.
The closing gain of 4.5% was the largest since August 2012, and came after a similar intraday surge in WTI two days ago. But WTI still ended the week 2% lower, extending a rout that has nearly halved prices since June.