NEW YORK—Oil prices slipped Thursday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries confirmed that its production rose in March.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery recently fell 66 cents, or 1.2%, to $55.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell 78 cents, or 1.2%, to $62.54 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
U.S. crude prices climbed to their highest levels of the year Wednesday on fresh signs in weekly supply data that U.S. production is close to peaking, which could help shrink the global glut of oil. OPEC fueled those expectations Thursday in its monthly market report, which forecast that U.S. output of crude oil and natural-gas liquids would start to decline in the third quarter.
But the cartel also reported that its production rose by about 800,000 barrels a day in March. If sustained, that level of increased output would more than offset the expected drop in U.S. production.
“Yesterday’s U.S. oil production-stalling data from the weekly inventory report has been overshadowed” by the increase in OPEC supply, said Matt Smith, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric SA, an energy-consulting firm.
