Oil slides after Opec fails to agree cuts

Oil prices fell by more than a dollar today after exporter countries within Opec failed to agree on production cuts at their weekend meeting in Cairo.

The cartel's secretary general said he expects that a further meeting later this month in Algeria will lead to cuts in supplies.

Abdullah al-Badri said: "The market is oversupplied because we are seeing stocks as very high - about 55 to 56 days. There will be action there [in Algeria]. It will be a good amount, a good quantity."

Analysts say the group is likely to cut production by between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels a day.

It last cut production with effect from 1 November but despite cuts totalling two million barrels a day, the oil price has slumped from its July peak of $147. Saudi Arabia is leading a group of Gulf States calling for existing cuts to be more rigorously enforced.

Today Brent crude was trading down 126 cents at $52.23 a barrel in London.