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The
concerns outweighed news of escalating violence in North Africa
that sparked questions about oil exports from the region and
prompted a small price rebound on Friday.
"It's a market where there are no signs of extreme tightness,"
said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix. "It makes
it hard to get a sustained rally."
Brent crude futures were down 34 cents at $55.56 a barrel by
1036 GMT after settling 1.5 percent higher in the previous
session.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 31 cents
to $53.02 a barrel after closing the previous session up 1.4
percent.
China on Monday lowered its growth target for the year to 6.5
percent, compared with 6.7 percent last year, and also tightened
regulatory controls in an effort to tackle pollution.
Investors are watching the moves carefully for signs they could
dampen demand for oil.
Meanwhile, figures from Russia's energy ministry released last
week showed February oil output was unchanged from January at
11.11 million barrels per day (bpd), casting doubt on its moves
to rein in output as part of a pact with oil producers last
year. Commerzank noted that Russia's production would need to
fall by a further 100,000 bpd in March in order to comply with
the agreement.
OPEC's compliance with promised cuts of 1.2 million bpd rose to
94 percent in February, but Saudi Arabia was responsible for the
bulk of them, Reuters data showed. Oil brokerage PVM said
current OPEC figures left "no room for an annual rebalancing."
"Compliance from the 11 member countries needs to improve and
the present agreement needs to be prolonged beyond June in order
to achieve meaningful drawdown in global oil inventories," PVM
analyst Tamas Varga said.
Turmoil in Libya, which was exempt from OPEC's cut deal,
underpinned prices.
Late last week, the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and
allied forces retreated from Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, two of
Libya's largest export terminals, as a faction known as the
Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) attacked.
The terminals had only just reopened in September, enabling
production to rise to roughly 700,000 bpd.
(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in Singapore, editing by
David Evans)
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