Oil prices drop on strong dollar

Oil prices dropped on Friday as the strengthening US dollar snuffed out rekindled hopes that OPEC might agree production cuts.

International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading down 13 cents at $46.36 per barrel at 0445 GMT, from their last close.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures CLc1 were trading at $45.19 per barrel, down 23 cents, or 0.51 per cent, from their last settlement.

The US dollar index reached a 13-1/2-year high.

The oil exporters` representatives - from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Venezuela, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Nigeria - are meeting in Qatar`s capital Doha to discuss details of a potential deal on output cuts.

Although Saudi Arabia is leading to reach a deal on cutting outputs, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro said the OPEC member would finance $2.2 billion from a Chinese credit line to boost oil joint ventures with China National Petroleum Corp CLc1 by around 277,000 barrels per day.

Iran`s increasing output also casts doubt on whether an OPEC deal will be able to clear a persistent global oil glut, according to a news agency report.