Oil dips

Singapore

Oil prices dipped on Monday, weighed down by a continuing expansion in U.S. drilling that has helped to maintain high global supplies despite an OPEC-led initiative to cut production to tighten the market.

Signs of faltering demand have also prompted weakening sentiment, dropping prices to levels comparable to when the output cuts were first announced late last year.

Brent crude futures were down 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $47.19 per barrel at 0659 GMT.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 20 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $44.54 per barrel.  Prices for both benchmarks are down by around 14 percent since late May, when producers led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) extended their pledge to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by an extra nine months until the end of the first quarter of 2018.