Oil prices declined on Monday as market participants cautiously awaited a key meeting by major oil producers on potential output cuts.
The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery fell 2.26 U.S. dollars to settle at 26.08 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery decreased 1.06 dollars to close at 33.05 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The slide came even after Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund managing 10 billion U.S. dollars, said on Monday that Russia and Saudi Arabia are "very close" to a deal on oil production cuts.
"I think the whole market understands that this deal is important and it will bring lots of stability, so much important stability to the market, and we are very close," Dmitriev said in an online interview with CNBC.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, are expected to hold a video conference on Thursday to discuss oil output cuts.
The OPEC+ video conference scheduled for Monday has been postponed until Thursday and the delay contributed to uncertainty in the market about the prospect of production cuts, experts noted.
Oil prices plunged to multi-year lows after OPEC+ failed to agree on new output cuts in Vienna last month, partly leading to a collapse in the global financial market.
Editor:Cherie
