Singapore — Oil prices fell early on Monday, weighed down by high supplies despite an Opec-led initiative to cut production to tighten the market. Signs of faltering demand stoked weak sentiment, prompting price levels comparable to when the output cuts were first announced late last year. Brent crude futures were down 11c or 0.23% at $47.26 a barrel at 0.35am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were also down 11c, or 0.25%, at $44.63 a barrel. Prices for both benchmarks are down by almost 13% since late May, when producers led by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) extended their pledge to cut production by 1.8-million barrels a day for an extra nine months until the end of the first quarter of 2018. Traders said on Monday that the main factor driving the low prices was a steady rise in US production that was undermining the Opec-led effort to tighten the market. "The US oil rig count continued to rise, up by six last week…. Since its trough...
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