Crude-oil futures fell below $60 a barrel Tuesday on expectations that OPEC will not cut production quotas at a Thursday meeting and as the U.S. dollar rose against the euro, putting downward pressure on dollar-denominated oil prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is unlikely to cut its production at the meeting in Vienna, analysts said. Instead, the cartel will ask for a better compliance to earlier cuts. In currencies, the dollar was lifted from flight-to-quality flows following North Korea's nuclear test Monday. Crude for July delivery fell $1.86, or 3%, to $59.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil rallied more than 8% last week, mainly boosted by a weaker dollar. "A stronger dollar and some further comments that there will not be a production cut at this week's OPEC meeting may be weighing on oil prices," said Brenda Sullivan, an analyst at Sucden Financial Research. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi Tuesday reiterated his desire for OPEC to "stay the course" with its production and called for better compliance with past output reductions, according to Dow Jones Newswires. OPEC in April raised its oil production for the first month since September, as some member countries took advantage of a recently rally in oil prices, data from the International Energy Agency showed. Countries such as Iran, Nigeria and Kuwait raised their production. Saudi Arabia also increased its output, although the country's production still remained within the quota. The cartel's compliance to its production cuts, totaling 4.2 million barrels a day since September, fell below 80% in April from March's 83%. "There are going to be some members who are more compliant with the target, who are going to be quite upset with their colleagues who have increased their production in April," said Kevin Saville, managing editor at Platts Global Alert. "What's going to happen is behind closed doors, you'll have members saying that we need to recommit to the cuts that we implemented at the end of last year," he added, referring to the upcoming meeting. In equities, Asian and European markets fell Tuesday, rattled by North Korea's nuclear test. U.S. stock futures were also indicating a lower opening. Also in energy trading, June-reformulated gasoline slid 3.88 cents, or 2.1%, to $1.802 a barrel, and June heating oil lost 3.32 cents, or 2.2%, to $1.5048 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery fell 9.1 cents, or 2.6%, to $3.424 per million British thermal units.

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