Brent crude futures were down $1.50, or 1.96%, to $75.21 a barrel by 1046 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.47, or 2.04%, to $70.68 a barrel. Backwardation in Brent crude oil futures — where the current value is higher than in later months — steepened after the weekend announcement with the six-month spread hitting a five-week high of $2.20/bbl on Monday. The U.S. services sector barely grew in May as new orders slowed, and market participants are waiting to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike or hold interest rates in June. Higher interest rates could curb energy demand.

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Persons: Brent, Backwardation, — steepened, Ole Hansen, Tamas Varga, PVM, Rowena Edwards, Arathy Somasekhar, Trixie Yap, Sriraj Kalluvila, Jason Neely Organizations: EIA, LONDON, Saudi, Brent, . West Texas, Citi, bbl, PMI, Saxo Bank, The, U.S . Federal, U.S . Energy Information Administration, Thomson Locations: Saudi Arabia, OPEC, U.S, Europe, China, Brent, The U.S, London, Houston, Singapore