Saudi Arabia and Qatar are considering his country’s proposal for an equilibrium price at $88 a barrel, he said.
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Meanwhile, Venezuela’s oil minister said on Sunday that OPEC can not allow an oil price war and must take action to stabilize the crude market soon.
“It’s hard to see what else moved the price besides the Saudi statement, even though it’s exactly what Oil Minister al- Naimi said last week”, said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS in Zurich.
Must Read: Utility Stocks Still Offer Yield With Safety – What’s Not to Like? “Diesel is the most exposed from weaker growth, an economic rebalancing in China and the slowdown in global trade”, it said in a market commentary.
Mounting expectations the USA will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade next month also drove the dollar higher today, hurting commodities.
He also told reporters that Venezuela is urging the cartel to adopt an “equilibrium price” which covers the cost of new investment in production capacity.
Brent remained steady and US crude was slightly lower after initially rallying on Monday as Saudi Arabia pledged to work toward oil price stability but traders continued to be concerned about a global supply surplus and increasing USA stockpiles.
“Ahead of the December 4th OPEC meeting, it s a positive sign that the Saudis are talking this up right now”, said Carl Larry of Frost & Sullivan. Saudi Arabia has previously said it was willing to cooperate with other oil producers to maintain oil price stability, but the comments on yesterday arrived as futures prices were barely holding above 2-1/2 month lows. “One year after OPEC announced its production policy to defend market share, their strategy seems to be working”.
Brent for January settlement was 22 cents lower at $44.44 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. On the NY Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures was off 27 cents, or 0.6%, at $41.69 a barrel. The European benchmark crude traded at a $2.77 premium to January WTI.
According to the latest report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), the increasingly fragile fiscal position of Bahrain amid the significantly low oil prices is likely to prompt a downgrade in its investment grade credit to “junk”.
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Opec has pumped above its collective target for the past 17 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
