Oil futures fell in Asian trade on Friday as a record build in U.S. crude stocks stoked concerns about global oversupply, outweighing moves by oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia to cap oil output.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week, to a peak of 504.1 million barrels, the third week of record highs in the past month, data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Thursday.
That came as Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday that talks would continue between OPEC and non-OPEC members to find ways to restore "normal" oil prices following a meeting on Wednesday.
"The market is expecting continuing inventory builds," said Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Japan's Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
"Key to any deal (to cap production) is Iran. But Iran has been clear, saying it wants to get back to its pre-sanctions (production) level," Nunan added.
Oil prices rose more than 14 percent in the three days to Thursday after Saudi Arabia and Russia, supported by other producers including Venezuela and Iraq, moved to freeze oil output at January's levels. Iran endorsed the plan without commitment on Wednesday,
If approved, it would be the first such deal in 15 years between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members.
Reference: ฺReuters
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