1st LD Writethru: Oil prices drop amid supply glut

Crude prices decreased Thursday as traders believed the global supply exceeded demand.

U.S. crude production reached 9.324 million barrels a day last week, the highest level since 1983, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Energy Department's statistical arm.

U.S. crude stockpiles increased 10.3 million barrels to 444.4 million last week, 80.6 million barrels more than a year earlier. Meanwhile, inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for contracts, gained 0.5 million barrels to 49.2 million barrels.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to maintain its collective output quota at 30 million barrels a day at the Nov. 27 meeting in Vienna.

There was no sign that producers would cut production in response to the slump. The OPEC increased output to 30.6 million barrels a day in February, according to a recent Bloomberg survey.

Traders are also closely watching the unrest situation of oil producer Libya. The port of Es Sider was attacked Tuesday by a plane belonging to Libya's Islamist-backed government, the Petroleum Facilities Guard said.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery lost 77 cents to settle at 50.76 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery moved down 7 cents to close at 60.48 dollars a barrel. Endite