NEW YORK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices extended losses on Friday as market sell-off continued amid concerns over weaker demand for crude.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery dropped 2.33 U.S. dollars to settle at 44.76 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. crude futures shed about 16 percent for the week, the biggest weekly decline since December 2008.
Brent crude for April delivery fell 1.66 dollars to settle at 50.52 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, leaving the global benchmark down nearly 14 percent for the week.
Market participants are hoping that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, would announce greater production cuts to prop up the prices, according to experts.
The OPEC and its allies are scheduled to meet in Vienna on March 5-6.
Last December, the OPEC+ group agreed to deepen production cuts by an additional 500,000 barrels a day, bringing the total cuts to 1.7 million barrels daily.
The OPEC, Russia and other producers have been largely limiting oil output in recent years in order to boost prices.
