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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery lost $1.16 to $57.13 on the New York Merc, while Brent for July lost $1.06 to $60.23, both benchmarks setting fresh four-year lows (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $11.20 to WTI, up from a discount of $11.40. Natural gas for June lost eight cents to $3.55. The TSX energy index lost 6.46 points to close at 236.63.

Oil prices had a dismal start to the week, tumbling after OPEC+ announced another unexpectedly large production increase. The group met on Saturday and decided, for the second month in a row, to roll back 411,000 barrels a day of prior production cuts starting in June. This takes its cumulative rollbacks from March through June to 960,000 barrels a day -- more than double the expected increase of about 400,000 barrels a day if the group had stuck to the gradual approach that it laid out previously. The official reason for the accelerated increase is "healthy oil market fundamentals" (though rumours abound that the group is in fact wielding low oil prices as a tool to punish members that have refused to comply with their production quotas, such as Kazakhstan).

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