Confirming the swirling rumors from Friday, WTI crude is leaking lower (near $47 handle) in early asia trading afer Bloomberg reports OPEC’s internal disagreements over how to implement oil-supply cuts agreed to last month prevented a deal to secure the cooperation of other major suppliers.

More than 18 hours of talks over two days in Vienna yielded little more than a promise that the world’s largest oil producers would keep on talking. Discussions will continue in late November, just days before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is supposed to finalize the accord that lifted oil prices to one-year highs.

Non-OPEC nations ended talks with the group on Saturday without making any supply commitments, Brazil’s Oil and Gas Secretary Marcio Felix said after the meeting. Brazil won’t restrict its oil production, though it’s willing as early as next year to host future OPEC conferences with the world’s biggest producers, he said in a phone interview.

A deal wasn’t possible because internal OPEC talks on Friday reached an impasse over the role of Iran and Iraq, both of which want to be exempt from any cuts. While non-member Oman said Saturday it was willing to cooperate in a supply deal, it couldn’t commit to a specific output cut until OPEC had its own agreement.

Bloomberg 

And WTI is extending Friday’s losses…

As OilPrice.com’s Julianne Geiger noted, in a tweet late in the afternoon on Friday, the Wall Street Journal’s financial reporter, Georgi Kantchev, said that OPEC’s technical meeting in Vienna was in deadlock, with Iraq and Iran disputing data on the grounds that OPEC has underestimated their production.

A separate tweet moments later stated that Iraq and Iran “refuse” to freeze their output, according to WSJ sources.

The news that Iraq and Iran may be refusing to freeze may disappoint the markets, but it is not shocking, and follows a pattern we’ve seen unfolding for quite some time.