New York — Oil prices edged lower on Friday, on track for their biggest weekly loss in six weeks, on doubts about Opec’s planned output cut and ahead of US rig count data that has steadily increased in the last few months. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries experts and counterparts from non-member producers such as Russia started two-day negotiations on Friday on limiting output to curb a global glut that has weighed on markets for two years. However, disagreements remain over which members should be exempt from participating in reducing total output to between 32.5-million and 33-million barrels per day. Russia expects a quick recovery in US shale oil production so that an output freeze could be short-lived, Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian energy ministry. Brent crude futures were down 41 cents at $50.06 a barrel by 2.14pm GMT. The contract had hit a session low of $49.96. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 43 cents at $49.29 a barrel after h...
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