The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that oil headed for its first quarterly loss in more than two years as escalating fears over a global economic slowdown and a stronger dollar overshadowed concerns of tightness in oil supplies. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that West Texas Intermediate traded near $80 (U.S.) a barrel Friday, with prices down about 24 per cent this quarter. Crude has been roiled by the surge in the dollar to a record over recent weeks, as aggressive central bank rate hikes darken the outlook for global growth. The shrinking decline is a concern for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which has signalled its willingness to protect crude prices. OPEC+ is mulling plans for an output cut, which could stem the price slide and give the market more direction. Analysts from RBC Capital Markets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. have said the producer group could pull anywhere between 500,000 to one million barrels a day of supply. Crude is "limping into the end of the quarter," said CIBC Private Wealth Management energy trader Rebecca Babin. "Next week's OPEC+ meeting is the next big catalyst but expect trading until then to be choppy and reactive to dollar moves."