Oil falls after Iran balks at output freeze

Futures fell as much as 2.1 percent in New York continuing the gyrations of the previous two days. It's not on our agenda†to reach agreement at the OPEC talks in Algiers, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters in the Algerian capital. Influential forecasters gave a worsening outlook for the market, with the head of the International Energy Agency saying supply and demand won't be in balance until late 2017 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cutting its fourth quarter price forecast.

Oil has fluctuated since rallying in August on speculation major producers will agree on ways to stabilize the market when they meet Wednesday. While Saudi Arabia offered last week to pump less crude if Iran caps output, neither the Gulf kingdom nor its neighbor expect an agreement this week. Freezing output was first proposed in February, but a meeting in April ended with no final accord.

“Our expectations are that there is no credible agreement, no credible outcome,” said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. “If you look at the production levels of the leading oil producers except for the States, these all are very high, close to all-time highs, which shows that the petro nations — they're just in need of revenues.”

West Texas Intermediate for November delivery was at 44.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.23 at 8:10 a.m. Central. . The contract gained $1.45 to $45.93 on Monday. Total volume traded was about 7 percent above the 100-day average. Prices have averaged about $44.81 this quarter.

OPEC Meeting

Saudi Arabia offered to reduce production to January levels, according to Algeria's Energy Minister. That would remove about half of the kingdom's 1 million barrel-a-day increase in output since it led OPEC's push to defend market share in 2014. The U.A.E. supports a deal to freeze output if other nations agree, but production cuts are not up for discussion, Oil Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said.

Negotiations in Algiers will be a warm up†for OPEC's next meeting in Vienna in November, Iran's oil ministry news service Shana reported, citing Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. Iran, which produced about 3.6 million barrels a day last month, is seeking a 12-13 percent share of OPEC's market, he added. That would equate to as much as 4.4 million barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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