The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery lost 67 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at 78.23 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery decreased 88 cents, or nearly 1.1 percent, to close at 80.87 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
For the week ending Friday, the U.S. crude benchmark rose 4.9 percent, while Brent jumped 5.1 percent, based on the front-month contracts.
"Last week's upswing was driven chiefly by supply outages in Libya and Kazakhstan. These appear to be gradually easing now," as there are signs that the production is starting to be back, Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Monday in a note.
"The tailwind lent to oil prices by supply concerns should therefore abate, which suggests that prices will fall this week," he said.
Latest comments