Crude prices drop on ample supplies

Crude prices retreated Tuesday amid worries that global supplies surpassed demand as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) didn't cut its output last week.

OPEC maintained its collective production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day on a meeting in Vienna last Thursday. OPEC members pumps a third of the world's crude.

The group cited ample supply, moderate demand, a stronger U.S. dollar and uncertainties about global economic growth as key factors in this recent price trend.

Report said that Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities reached an agreement Tuesday for increasing oil exports. The deal allows the shipment of 550,000 barrels of crude a day to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan along a pipeline operated by the Kurds. Traders thought this deal is going to put additional supply on the market. Iraq is the second-largest oil producer of OPEC.

The 12-country group predicated that world oil demand in 2015 is to grow by around 1.1 million barrels per day, with total world consumption at around 92.3 million barrels per day. The bulk of this net oil demand growth will continue to come from non-OECD countries.

Analysts said as the organization keeps production steady, crude prices could fall further.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery moved down 2.12 dollars to settle at 66.88 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery lost 2 dollars to close at 70.54 dollars a barrel.