Oil drops on demand doubts, fears that producer output cuts not yet agreed - Reuters

Oil drops on demand doubts, fears that producer output cuts not yet agreed - Reuters:

Oil slid 1% on Friday as worries about global oil demand and economic growth slowdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak were heightened by concern over non-OPEC crude producers not yet having agreed to cut output further to support prices.

Brent crude fell 49 cents, or 0.98%, to $49.50 per barrel by 0735 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 46 cents, or 1%, at $45.44 per barrel.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday pushed for crude output by OPEC and associated producers - a group known as OPEC+ - to be cut by an extra 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in total until the end of 2020. The call came ahead of an OPEC+ meeting scheduled for Friday in Vienna.

Non-OPEC states were expected to contribute 500,000 bpd to the overall extra cut, OPEC ministers said. But Russia and Kazakhstan, both members of OPEC+, said they had not yet agreed to the deeper cut, raising the risk of a collapse in cooperation that has propped up crude prices since 2016.