Investing.com - Oil prices were lower during European hours on Friday, as investors looked ahead to a technical meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to discuss the details of an eventual agreement on oil production freezes and/or cuts by member countries.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 21 cents, or 0.42%, to $49.51 a barrel by 4:48AM ET (08:48GMT).
Elsewhere, Brent oil for December delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London fell 13 cents, or 0.26%, to $50.34 a barrel.
Oil futures 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.
Friday’s meeting of cartel members was meant to set the building blocks for implementation to be undertaken at the November meeting.
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.
OPEC members will be joined by other oil producers on Saturday to discuss possible coordination.
Russia has said that it was in favor of the OPEC’s deal and suggested that it could agree to a freeze, but uncertainty over its exact position on its own output continued to put pressure on crude.
Market participants will also gauge U.S. production on Friday with the Baker Hughes’ rig count data set to cap the week.
Last week, the oilfield services provider said the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week rose by 9 to 443, marking the 16th increase in 17 weeks.