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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery plunged $2.84 to $56.25 on the New York Merc, while Brent for September lost $2.66 to $62.40 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.30 to WTI, unchanged. Natural gas for August lost three cents to $2.24. The TSX energy index lost 1.81 points to close at 137.57.

Oil prices had a rough day in spite of OPEC's decision to extend its production-cutting pact, rolling it over by nine months into the first quarter of 2020. The cuts were introduced at the beginning of 2017 and will soon enter their fourth year as the cartel continues to lose market share to U.S. shale. In addition, OPEC's members reached a compromise on a charter regarding Russia and nine other non-OPEC countries, formalizing the co-operation that already exists within OPEC+, as the collective producer group is commonly known. The current OPEC+ production-cutting pact calls for the group to reduce production by a total of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day until the end of March, 2020. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh suggested to Bloomberg today that the cuts may eventually have to be deepened. None of this managed to reassure oil traders, who continued to worry about a weakening global economy and rising trade tensions between China and the United States.

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