By Biman Mukherji 
 

--A fresh Monday morning slump in oil futures steadied by midday in Asia as investors continued to react to the possibility of major oil producers including Russia and Saudi Arabia boosting production.

--July light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently down 2.5% at $66.20 a barrel in the Globex trading session. July Brent continued to hold up better than the U.S. benchmark, dropping 1.9% to $75.01. WTI settled down 4% on Friday, versus Brent's 3% decline.

--Beyond the prospect of those part of the production-cap deal led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreeing to higher output was Friday afternoon's disclosure that active U.S. oil-drilling rigs rose by the most since February the past week, said Phillip Futures' Benjamin Lu. That news, though, didn't add to Friday's price slump as U.S. output has already been at record highs.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 28, 2018 01:16 ET (05:16 GMT)