Oil Prices Drop; OPEC’s Monitoring Committee to Begin Meeting Today

Crude oil prices dropped nearly 50 cents a barrel in mostly quiet trading Tuesday on reports of overproduction by OPEC members and doubts that the cartel’s pricing committee will hammer out a solution at the meeting today.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the contract for September delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade of U.S. crude oil, fell 47 cents a barrel to close at $15.61 for a 42-gallon barrel. The September contract lost 23 cents Monday.

North Sea Brent oil for September was quoted at $14.95 a barrel on the spot market, down 50 cents from Monday’s close.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ five-member price monitoring committee is due to begin talks today in Lausanne, Switzerland, to determine how to boost prices, which have fallen well below OPEC’s target of $18 a barrel.

The meeting will address the recent weakness in oil prices and overproduction by some OPEC members.