NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Friday on speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may wait until December to decide whether to cut oil production further.
Members of the cartel are slated to hold a meeting Saturday in Cairo to review oil prices and the supply-demand balance. Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said Friday the group may defer the decision until the Dec. 17 meeting.
Crude for December delivery fell $1.44, or 2.7%, to $53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Despite Friday's losses, crude is set to end the week up for the first time in a month.
"If OPEC fails to reduce output, then we could see oil markets head back to sub-$50 levels," wrote Nimit Khamar, an energy analyst at Sucden Research.
As oil prices slumped from their record high near $150 a barrel, hit in July, OPEC has already cut its oil output twice in the last two months for a total reduction of about 2 million barrels a day.
But the production cut hasn't stopped the roller-coaster declines of crude prices. Oil ended below $50 a barrel on Nov. 20 for the first time since May 2005.
Members of OPEC have a bad record in terms of complying with production cuts. Several delegates have said they were likely only to measure compliance of previous cuts at Saturday's meeting.
"There is nothing on the agenda" for OPEC's Saturday meeting about making a final decision on a third cut, Al Attiyah said to reporters upon arriving in Cairo, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Al Attiyah said a decision to cut output again would be more likely at the December meeting.
The global economic slowdown has dampened energy demand. Crude inventories in the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer, rose 7.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 21, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday.
Demand for motor gasoline fell 2.8% over the last four weeks compared to the same period a year ago. Distillate fuel demand declined 2.2%, and jet fuel demand fell 18%.
In other energy futures Friday, reformulated gasoline for January delivery slid 0.1% to $1.20 a gallon. January heating oil fell 0.92% to $1.7452 a gallon, while January natural gas lost 3.2% to $6.658 per million British thermal units.
