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Oil down but off lows as Kuwait strike offsets failed output freeze

• yahoo.com

The strike crippled more than 60 percent of Kuwait's crude output, lending support to price benchmarks such as Brent and Dubai. [nL3N17L282]

Brent tumbled as much as 7 percent earlier on Monday after oil majors from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC Russia failed to reach agreement on a plan to freeze output at a meeting in Doha, Qatar. [nL5N17K02F]

"The material loss in production from the Kuwait strike has helped the oil market forget about the farce from Doha," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at the New York-headquartered Clipperdata.

Brent settled down 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $42.91 a barrel. It had fallen $3 earlier in the session.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark closed down 58 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $39.78 a barrel, after sliding to $37.61 at the day's low.

While fallout from the Doha plan could weigh on a nascent recovery in oil prices, the market may not tumble as much as it did earlier this year, when Brent hit 12-year lows of around $27 in late January, some analysts said.


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