The United States has strongly criticised Nord Stream 2, a 11 billion euro ($12.4 billion) project to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which opponents fear will undermine Ukraine’s gas transit revenues and increase the EU’s reliance on Russian gas.

Brent futures were down 42 cents, or 0.7%, at $61.55 a barrel by 0552 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down by 48 cents, or 0.9%, at $53 a barrel.

Front-month Brent crude futures were at $60.96 at 0844 GMT, down $1.03 or 1.7% below Friday’s close. Prices had dropped by more than 3% on Friday, with May recording the biggest monthly loss in six months. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.98 per barrel, down 52 cents, or 1%.

Total world crude oil production increased sharply in 2018 by 1.213 million barrels/day (mb/d), or 1.6%, as compared to 2017, to reach 75.78 mb/d, marking a historical high and the highest annual growth since 2015.

Front-month Brent crude futures were at $60.96 at 0844 GMT, down $1.03 or 1.7% below Friday’s close. Prices had dropped by more than 3% on Friday, with May recording the biggest monthly loss in six months. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.98 per barrel, down 52 cents, or 1%.

Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in May, a Saudi industry source said, a deeper cut than its target set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+.

Aramco hiked the July price differential for its flagship Arab Light grade by 60 cents/b to a premium of $2.70/b to the average of Oman/Dubai, the highest since January 2014, when it was a premium of $3.75/b to Oman/Dubai.

Front-month Brent crude futureswere at $65.72 at 0844 GMT, down $1.15 from last session’s close. WTI crude futures were at $55.85 per barrel, down 74 cents from their last settlement.

Brent crude futures were at $69.03 per barrel at 1325 GMT, down 42 cents, or 0.6%, from their last close. WTI crude futures were up 23 cents, or 0.4%, at $59.04 a barrel, supported by expectations of a fall in U.S. crude inventories.

To put these two things together, the shale oil affecting both the volume of export and the price, plus the developments in clean technologies, tell me that for those countries who meet in Vienna, it has never been more important for them to diversify their economies. We have seen in Algeria, for example, one of the main reasons is the low oil price and the impact on the economy, and the same with Venezuela and elsewhere.