SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices fell below $45 a barrel in Asia on Monday after OPEC decided not to cut production levels at its meeting over the weekend in Vienna.
Benchmark crude for April delivery fell $1.88 to $44.37 a barrel by midmorning in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices dropped 78 cents on Friday to settle at $46.25 a barrel.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Sunday they would strive to adhere more closely to the group's current output quotas. OPEC is overshooting its daily target level of just under 25 million barrels a day by about 800,000 barrels.
Prices had risen from under $35 a barrel last month as investors anticipated OPEC would cut production by up to 1 million barrels a day on top of 4.2 million barrels of reductions announced since September.
"The gains we've seen in oil over the last two or three weeks were from pricing in a further cutback, which didn't come through," Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist with ANZ Bank in Melbourne. "So now we're seeing some profit-taking." more...
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