Investing.com - Oil prices slumped to a three-week low during European hours on Wednesday, adding to overnight losses as market players awaited fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products, while doubts over an output cut by major global oil producers dampened sentiment.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange touched a session low of $49.21 a barrel, a level not seen since October 10.
It was last at $49.45 by 3:50AM ET (07:50GMT), down 51 cents, or 1.02%, after losing 56 cents, or 1.11%, a day earlier.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 10:30AM ET (14:30GMT) Wednesday, amid analyst expectations for an increase of 1.69 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories are expected to fall by 963,000 barrels while stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, are forecast to drop by 1.41 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories increased by 4.8 million barrels in the week ended October 21, higher than the 2.0-million-barrel build forecast by analysts.
The API report also showed a gain of 1.7 million barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillates showed a drop of 900,000 barrels on the week.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for December delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 41 cents, or 0.81%, to $50.38 a barrel. The contract slumped to $50.13 earlier, the lowest since October 3.
On Tuesday, prices fell 67 cents, or 1.3%, as fading expectations of a coordinated production cut among major global oil producers and a stronger U.S. dollar weighed.
Global oil prices have been under pressure in recent days amid market skepticism over the implementation of a planned deal by OPEC to limit production.
The 14-member oil group reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held on the sidelines of an energy conference in Algeria late last month.
However, OPEC said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
In September, the group’s production reached 33.4 million barrels a day.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the upcoming meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia’s unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.