Oil prices on the world’s leading futures markets took a fresh dive over the weekend after it appeared that Russia’s commitment to production restraint was only up by 20,000 barrels a day from an earlier 30,000.

Alongside, a vague commitment was made to review Russian oil companies export volumes in the course of December. LUKoil’s vice-president Leonid Fedun was quoted by The Moscow Times on Monday this week as commenting that there was no cause for immediate alarm. "There must be output cuts," he said. "But it should not be done in a manner a scolded cat acts." Earlier last week, prices had bounced back after Russia, in a U-turn from its previous stand, promised to cut supplies with 150,000 barrels a day after Norway took the lead with a pledge to cut 200,000 barrels a day. The move coincided with a vague commitment by Kazakhstan to show restraint in its attempts to boost production and export to a world major’s level as long as the market’s room for it remains limited. The same day, Mexico promised another 100,000 barrel cut, followed by Oman with 25,000 barrels - bringing the total restraint up to $25,000 barrels short of OPEC’s demand of a 0.5 million barrel cut.