Oil Prices Retreat As Doha Summit Fails To Reach Production Freeze Deal

Oil prices fell about 5 percent Monday after the world's largest oil-producing countries failed to strike a deal to freeze output, at a summit held in Doha, Qatar's capital city, Sunday. Crude oil prices had ramped up almost 30 percent in recent months after having approached a 13-year low in February, as investors had hoped the agreement would be reached at the summit.

Global crude oil benchmark, Brent, was down as much as $2 a barrel at $40.88 per barrel while the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 3.39 percent to $38.99 per barrel.

“Nothing has changed in market fundamentals, but any hopes of a coordinated OPEC supply response are now at zero,” David Hufton, chief executive officer of brokers PVM Group in London, told Bloomberg.

“Once again, the Saudis have delivered a hammer blow to fellow producers, and this promises to be the final nail in the coffin for shale producers hanging on for a price reprieve,” he added.

Sixteen nations, representing about half the world’s crude oil output, met Sunday to agree on a production limit to counter a global supply glut that pushed prices below $30 per barrel this year, compared to more than $100 per barrel in 2014.

On Saturday, Iran told the group of nations that it would not be attending the meeting or placing any caps on its production. However, Saudi Arabia, one of the largest oil producers in the world, unexpectedly insisted that all OPEC countries, including Iran, had to subscribe to the production limits, throwing the meeting into disarray.

Scheduled to end with an early afternoon press conference, proceedings dragged into the evening, according to media reports.

“The market has mostly priced in the fact production rate will stay the same even before the meeting. But a failure to reach an agreement is bearish for sentiment and prices are likely to fall further later during the U.S. trading hours,” Nelson Wang, an energy analyst at CLSA, told MarketWatch.