Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures have gained almost 6 percent this week and are on course for their biggest weekly gain in three weeks following two consecutive weeks of declines, after major producers Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation agreed on Monday to cooperate on stabilising the oil market.
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Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak said at the G20 summit that an output freeze would help the market rebalance.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday thanks to a weaker dollar but skepticism that key producers would agree to limit output at an upcoming meeting kept gains in check, traders said.
At about 0400 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 31 cents to $45.14 and Brent crude was up 33 cents at Dollars 47.59. With US markets closed Monday for a holiday, electronic transactions on WTI will be booked Tuesday for settlement purposes. On a more positive note, the National Iranian Oil Company said it expects the oil market to rebalance in the fourth quarter 2016 or in early 2017.
“The longevity of the rally being how long before reality bites with the OPEC meeting still three weeks away”.
Oil prices inched lower today as market participants remained skeptical that producers will reach an agreement to freeze output to rein in a global supply glut.
LONDON – Oil rose on Wednesday to pare some of the previous day’s losses, partly thanks to a weaker United States dollar, but the limited likelihood of a near-term agreement among the world’s biggest exporters to rein in production kept gains in check.
US crude traded between $44.55 and $45.58 before finishing 67 cents higher on the day at $45.50.
“There won’t be an agreement but it does no harm to keep talking about this because that itself is price supportive”, Fyfe said at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference in Singapore on Wednesday. Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh intends to take the country’s output to 4.6 million bpd within 5 years, according to statements he made in parliament last week.
“Oil production amounted to 10.71 million barrels per day in August 2016, although it was down 1.6 per cent month-on-month”.
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At one point this year, the oil price was flirting with the $20 per barrel mark. This time, however, Iran has agreed to attend the meeting, which is being held on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum on September 26-28.
