Opec ministers can transform the gathering into an extraordinary meeting since they will all be present, Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa said on public radio. Oil-producing countries previously considered freezing output to counter a global supply glut that cut prices by more than half from their 2014 peak.
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Commercial crude inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels, the third consecutive week of declines.
“This is indicative of the unpredictability of Libyan oil production because the fighting means that we don’t know how sustained their output can be”, Halley added.
OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said he expected the potential freeze deal between OPEC and other producers to freeze output to last one year, longer than previously thought. “We will have to see if the trends normalize next week”, said John Kilduff, partner at NY energy hedge fund Again Capital in NY. “It’s still not likely to be a substantive agreement”. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 2% at $44.91 a barrel. Total volume traded was in line with the 100-day average. In London, Brent North Sea oil for November delivery advanced to US$46.83 a barrel, up 95 cents from the close on Tuesday. Prices dropped 7 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $45.88 a barrel on Tuesday.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock-the benchmark gasoline contract-rose 2.2% to $1.39 a gallon.
“For the week ended September 9, crude stocks were 510.8 million barrels, or 135 million barrels above the five-year average”, he said.
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A meeting this week between delegates of Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose rivalry caused the collapse of freeze talks earlier this year, was reportedly to prepare for discussions between Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russian Federation at the Algeria freeze talks next week – but pundits think it heralds a positive outcome for the maligned talks. Oil needs another six to nine months to stabilize within a range of $50 to $60 a barrel, he said.
