Brent crude extended losses below $80 a barrel, dropping to afour-year low amid signs that OPEC remains unwilling to reduceoutput to ease a supply glut. West Texas Intermediate fell in NewYork.

Futures slid as much as 1.3 percent in London to the lowestsince September 2010. Saudi Arabia is committed to a stable marketand speculation of a price war within the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries “has no basis in reality,” Oil Minister AliAl-Naimi said Wednesday in Acapulco, Mexico. Crude stockpiles inthe U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer, probably rose for asixth week, a Bloomberg News survey shows before government dataThursday.

Oil has collapsed into a bear market as leading OPEC membersresisted calls to cut production and instead reduced export pricesto the U.S., where output has climbed to the highest level in morethan three decades. Venezuela, Libya and Ecuador have asked foraction to prevent crude from falling further. The group isscheduled to meet this month in Vienna.

“People recognize that you're unlikely to see a cut in this Nov.27 OPEC meeting,” and that's pushed prices lower in the lastseveral days, Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at GoldmanSachs Group Inc. in New York, said Thursday in an interview onBloomberg Television's “On the Move.” “When we look at U.S. shaleproduction, it is continuing to surprise to the upside.”

Brent for December settlement, which expires today, dropped asmuch as $1.03 to $79.35 a barrel on the London-based ICE FuturesEurope exchange. The more active January contract was down 77 centsat $80.35 at 11:01 a.m. local time. The European benchmark crudetraded at a premium of $2.72 to WTI on ICE, the narrowest in almosta month.

WTI for December delivery was 34 cents lower at $76.84 a barrelin electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost76 cents to $77.18 Wednesday, the lowest close since October 2011.The volume of all futures traded was about 32 percent above the100-day average for the time of day. Prices have decreased 22percent this year.

Saudi Arabia's production slid 69,900 barrels a day to aseven-month low of 9.603 million in October, OPEC said in itsmonthly report Wednesday. The 12-member group, which supplies about40 percent of the world's oil, pumped 30.253 million barrels a day,OPEC said, citing data based on estimates from sources includinganalysts and media organizations. That exceeds its collectivetarget of 30 million set in January 2012.

The Saudi numbers are another bearish signal for the oil market,said Julian Lee, an oil strategist at Bloomberg First Word. At atime when domestic oil use typically falls by more than 200,000barrels a day as weather cools, the October output figure impliesthe kingdom is either storing more crude or increasing exports, hesaid.

Crude Stockpiles

U.S. crude inventories probably expanded by 1.1 million barrelsin the week ended Nov. 7, according to the median estimate in theBloomberg survey of nine analysts before data from the EnergyInformation Administration Thursday. Supplies previously rose to380.2 million, the highest since July 4.

Gasoline stockpiles are projected to have climbed by 350,000barrels, the survey shows. Distillate fuels, which includes heatingoil and diesel, are forecast to have declined by 1.5 million.

Crude supplies shrank by 1.5 million barrels last week, theAmerican Petroleum Institute said Wednesday, according to BainEnergy. The industry group in Washington collects information on avoluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals andpipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with theEIA, the Energy Department's statistical arm.

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