Oil rose towards $41 a barrel on Thursday, trading close to a 2016 high, bolstered by a plan among some of the world’s biggest producers to meet next month to discuss supporting the market.
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Iran has said that it would participate in an output freeze after it achieves a crude oil production target of 4 MMbpd in 2016.
Oil has rebounded after slumping to a 12-year low this year on speculation stronger demand and falling US output will ease a surplus. Crude likely will be back up to $50 a barrel by the end of the year, Novak said.
Crude inventories increased 1.3 million barrels in the week to March 11 to 523.2 million, a much smaller build than the 3.4 million-barrel increase expected by analysts.
OPEC member states and other major oil producers are planning to meet next month to discuss a freeze in oil output levels, Qatar’s top energy official said Wednesday.
Speculators have added to their bets on a sustained rise in crude futures and the ratio of bullish bets to bearish in the Brent market has risen to its highest since last May, consultancy JBC Energy said.
“To date, around 15 OPEC and non-OPEC producers, accounting for about 73 per cent of global oil output, are supporting this initiative”, Sada said in a statement. HE the Minister of Energy and Industry said, “The continuous efforts of the Qatar Government, have been instrumental in promoting dialogue among all oil producers to support the Doha initiative, helping the stabilization of oil market to the interest of all”.
He said the deal could exclude Iran as the country seeks to regain production hit by now-lifted global sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear program. At around 0600 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April was up 1.62%, or 59 cents, to $36.93.
A final deal on production freeze to support oil prices, which have fallen 65 percent since peaking in June 2014 due to oversupply, is seen next month, possibly in Doha again, Reuters quoted Novak as saying.
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Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, has said his country won’t consider joining until its production reaches four million barrels a day, up from about 3.2 million barrels a day now.
