Oil prices dropped on Monday as the trading was relatively light.
The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery moved down 7 cents to settle at $39.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery decreased 17 cents to close at $40.27 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Crude markets were closed last Friday due to the Good Friday holiday.
Analysts were worried that the rebound of oil prices to $40 level might drive more producers back to the market.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers are scheduled to meet on April 17 in Doha to discuss the output freeze. But Iran indicated that it won't participate in the output freeze until its production reaches 4 million barrels a day, the level before the international sanctions.
Traders were still doubtful about whether this meeting would lead to any realistic results that could boost the crude prices.
--Indo-Asian News Service
ahm/
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