Kuwait, Saudi Arabia ready to cut oil prices to $80

Oil prices fell by more than $1 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait signal their willingness to bear lower prices to defend market share, Reuters reports.

Brent crude futures were down $1.23 to $88.98 a barrel and dropped earlier on Monday to $87.74, the lowest level since December 2010. WTI futures slipped $1.14 to $84.68 a barrel.

OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait look set to keep output steady, and their willingness to bear with lower crude prices. Saudi Arabia has privately told oil markets that it is ready to accept oil prices perhaps down to $80 a barrel, probably to fend off competition as rival producers, including the US shale oil producers, expand.

Kuwait's oil minister Ali al-Omair was quoted as saying by state news agency KUNA on Sunday that OPEC is unlikely to cut oil production in an effort to prop up prices because such a move would not necessarily be effective. Omair said $76-$77 a barrel might be the level that would end the oil price slide, since that was the cost of oil production in the United States and Russia.

Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are scheduled to meet in Vienna on November 27 to consider whether to adjust their output target of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) for early 2015. Saudi Arabia reported September production of 9.704 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 9.597 million in August.