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London, UK (BBN) - Oil prices were lower in European trading on Tuesday, after rising to the strongest level in around a month in the prior session on growing expectations that OPEC members will extend supply cuts for a prolonged period when they meet later this week.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude July contract shed 44 cents, or around 0.9%, to $50.69 a barrel by 2:45AM ET (06:45GMT), reports Investing.com.
The U.S. benchmark settled higher for the fourth straight session on Monday after hitting its strongest since April 19 at $51.43.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for July delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 45 cents to $53.42 a barrel, after climbing to its highest since April 19 at $54.37 in the prior session.
Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producing countries will meet in Vienna on Thursday to decide whether to extend their current production agreement beyond a June 30-deadline.
In November last year, OPEC and 11 other non-OPEC producers, including Russia, agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January 1 and June 30.
Most market analysts expect the oil cartel to extend output cuts for a further nine months until March 2018, instead of six months as previously expected.
There is also talk that OPEC is looking at the option of deepening current production cuts, but it is not clear whether there would be support for that.
So far, the production-cut agreement has had little impact on global inventory levels due to rising supply from producers not participating in the accord, such as Libya, and a relentless increase in U.S. shale oil output.
The U.S. rig count rose for the 18th week in a row to the highest level since April 2015 last week, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
Investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.2 million barrels.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for June inched down 0.5 cents, or 0.3%, to $1.653 a gallon, while June heating oil declined 0.8 cents to $1.593 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for July delivery slipped 1.6 cents to $3.408 per million British thermal units.
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