By Jenny W. Hsu 
 

Crude oil prices edged lower in early Asian trade on Friday as market players look to U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen's speech later today for hints on U.S. monetary policy.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $47.29 a barrel at 0213 GMT, down $0.04 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.09 to $49.58 a barrel.

Ms. Yellen is due to deliver a speech later today at the annual central bankers' summit at Jackson Hole, Wyo. Analysts and economists will scrutinize her remarks for clues about rate increases in the coming months and the Fed's preparations to tackle the next economic downturn.

An increase in U.S. interest rates would lift the dollar, which would make oil more expensive for traders who conduct business in other currencies.

"Traders are skeptical that Yellen will deliver an upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy, one strong enough to prompt interest rate hikes," said Stuart Ive, a client manager at OM Financial.

Oil prices rose overnight after Iran signalled that its oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, will attend the informal gathering of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members next month in Algeria.

Iran's attendance could mark a turning point in the cartel's efforts to stabilize faltering oil prices. Iran snubbed the last informal OPEC meeting in April, saying it would not entertain the idea of a production freeze. At that time, sanctions on Iran's oil exports had only been lifted for four months and the country was pumping out 3.4 million barrels a day, based on OPEC's monthly report.

However, with Iran's production at 3.6 million barrels a day and prices still more than 50% below the $100 a barrel level seen in mid 2014, some analysts believe a collective production cap would be in Iran's interests.

Furthermore, as Iran's oil exports and production have reached a plateau, some within OPEC say Iran hitting a natural ceiling on its output might be enough to persuade rival Saudi Arabia to join an output agreement next month. In April, the kingdom also rejected the freeze proposal after Iran refused to budge.

The ongoing gradual pivot to a rebalance, spurred by declining production in non-OPEC countries as a result prolonged low prices, might also give major producers further justification to leave the output alone and let the market run its course, said Tim Evans, a Citi Futures analyst.

Smaller OPEC producers whose productions were stifled recently by militant attacks may also reject a freeze until their production returns to normal levels.

"We're more concerned with this possibility of additional total OPEC barrels in the near term - with or without a freeze - than with the risk that OPEC supply restraint will trigger an intermediate-term US shale oil renaissance," Mr. Evans added.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for September--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 44 points to $1.5070 a gallon, while September diesel traded at $1.5097, 3 points higher.

ICE gasoil for September changed hands at $438.50 a metric ton, up $1.25 from Thursday's settlement.

-- Harriet Torry and Benoit Faucon contributed to this article.

Write to Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2016 22:51 ET (02:51 GMT)