LONDON: World oil prices dropped on Friday as traders awaited the outcome of an OPEC output meeting.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in July fell 50 cents to stand at $101.69 a barrel in London midday trading.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for July decreased 53 cents to $93.08 a barrel.
OPEC ministers said on Friday said that they expected to keep oil output levels unchanged at a meeting in the cartel's Vienna headquarters, despite concern about cooler demand in view of the weak economic outlook.
The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, comprising nations from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, is mindful that while cutting production could raise prices and boost producers' incomes, such a move could also hamper fragile global recovery.
Angolan Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos told reporters that OPEC would likely roll over its daily output target of 30 million barrels per day,
"We are producing about 30 million barrels (per day). I think we will take the decision to maintain the situation," he told journalists at the start of the meeting.
Official data on Thursday showed US stockpiles hitting an all-time high level. Crude stockpiles jumped by three million barrels in the week ended May 24 to 397.6 million barrels, striking a record peak since the start of the weekly data in 1982, the Department of Energy reported.
The supplies also were the highest since May 1931, according to the department's monthly inventories reports.
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