NEW YORK-Oil prices fell yes­ter­day, ex­tend­ing the pre­vi­ous ses­sion's slide, as in­vestors shift­ed fo­cus from the like­ly eco­nom­ic ben­e­fit of cen­tral bank stim­u­lus to con­cerns about sput­ter­ing glob­al eco­nom­ic growth that prompt­ed the US Fed­er­al Re­serve to launch its bond-buy­ing pro­gramme.

Al­so pres­sur­ing oil, a se­nior Gulf source said Sau­di Ara­bia is work­ing to low­er oil prices and is pro­duc­ing around ten mil­lion bar­rels per day and that a ma­jor­i­ty of OPEC mem­bers want oil prices around $100 per bar­rel and would be in­creas­ing pro­duc­tion over the next few months.

Brent prices rose sev­en straight ses­sions be­fore set­tling 2.4 per cent low­er on Mon­day, ben­e­fit­ing first from grow­ing ex­pec­ta­tions that the Fed would act to bol­ster the econ­o­my, and sub­se­quent­ly from the ac­tu­al launch of the stim­u­lus pro­gramme on Thurs­day af­ter a two-day pol­i­cy meet­ing. Brent No­vem­ber crude fell US$1.05 to US$112.74 a bar­rel.

Reuters