LONDON, Dec 1: Oil prices dropped more than $3 on Monday after Opec decided at a weekend meeting against cutting its production, preferring to wait until December before reducing crude exports.

Light sweet crude for delivery in January was down $3.56 at $50.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

On London’s InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent North Sea crude for January slid $3.34 to $50.15.

“Crude oil futures were down over $2 as Opec’s decision to leave output unchanged weighed on the markets” said Sucden analyst Michael Davies.The cartel’s secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri said on Monday that Opec would decide on a “major” output cut next month if the oil market is deemed to be deteriorating.

“If we see the market is deteriorating we will make a major action in Algeria and anywhere if necessary,” he told reporters in Iran.

El-Badri, who is attending an oil and gas seminar in Tehran, said earlier that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries would cut production by a “good amount” when it meets in December to tackle tumbling prices.—AFP