By Alison Sider and Christopher Alessi 

Oil prices fell Monday, pulled lower by falling prices for gasoline and diesel as the end of summer driving season approaches.

U.S. crude futures recently fell $1.14, or 2.35%, at $47.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell $1.06, or 2.01% to $51.66 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

The move lower snaps a two-session winning streak and reverses gains from Friday, when oil prices gained about 3%.

"The market is looking for the next driver, and it's going to float around $45 to $50 until it finds it," said Gene McGillian, research manager at Tradition Energy.

One question investors are weighing is whether the amount of oil being stored in the U.S. will keep declining once summer ends and demand begins to wane. Some 69 million barrels of crude have been drained from storage in the U.S. since March, but that could slow down.

"I'm beginning to wonder if we're seeing signs that the strength we've seen was related to seasonal demand factors, Mr. McGillian said.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release fresh data on inventories Wednesday.

Concerns that summer driving season is waning with still high levels of gasoline and diesel in storage have taken hold, pulling prices lower, analysts said.

"We have more than adequate inventory and the Labor Day holiday is nearly upon us," said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. "The market is definitely under pressure from the gasoline and diesel side."

Gasoline futures settled down 3.99 cents, or 2.46%, to $1.5841 a gallon. Diesel futures fell 4.92 cents, or 3.04%, to $1.5712 a gallon.

Those worries outweighed figures showing that production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is falling. OPEC's production is forecast to fall 419,000 barrels a day this month, to 32.8 million barrels a day, according to Petro-Logistics -- halting the increase seen in the previous month when compliance with the group's production cut agreement fell to its lowest level of the year.

The cartel's exports fell by 750,000 barrels a day in the first half of August, Petro-Logistics said.

OPEC and 10 producers outside the cartel, including Russia, first agreed late last year to cap production at around 1.8 million barrels a day lower than peak October 2016 levels, with the goal of reducing the global oil glut and boosting prices. The deal was extended in May until March 2018.

Meanwhile, oil-field services firm Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. fell by five in the previous week, a further sign that drillers are responding to the lower price environment by pulling back.

--Benoit Faucon and Sarah McFarlane contributed to this article.

Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com and Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2017 16:29 ET (20:29 GMT)

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