Investing.com - Oil prices were lower in U.S. trading on Monday, pulling back from a four-week high as rising U.S. shale production continued to feed concerns about a global supply glut.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude May contract fell 16 cents, or around 0.3%, to $50.44 a barrel by 10:15AM ET (14:15GMT). It touched its highest since March 8 at $50.85 in the prior session.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 15 cents to $53.38 a barrel. The global benchmark hit $53.77 on Friday, the most since March 9.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 10 last week, the 11th weekly increase in a row.
That brought the total count to 662, the most since September 2015, underlining concern that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
Oil prices rose around 5% last week, the biggest weekly rise in four months, amid optimism that OPEC will extend its production-cut deal beyond June.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day between January and June. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers have agreed to jointly cut by an additional 600,000 barrels per day.
In total, they agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the first six months of the year, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will meet in late April to present its recommendation on the fate of the pact. A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for May added 0.2 cents, or 0.2%, to $1.706 a gallon, while May heating oil tacked on 0.4 cents to $1.579 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for May delivery lost 4.3 cents to $3.147 per million British thermal units as a bout of technical selling kicked in after priced failed to break above a key resistance level.