Brent for November settlement advanced 18 cents, or 0.4%, to $45.95 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
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“Global production is at 94 million barrels per day (bpd), of which we need to go down 9 million barrels per day to sustain the level of consumption”, Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said in an interview with state oil company PDVSA. Increase in US commercial crude may pave the way for further decrease in oil prices as rise in stocks indicates growing oversupply. Petrol fell 0.4pc in futures trading to $1.46 per gallon.
OPEC may turn its planned informal meeting in Algiers next week into a formal session as it seeks ways with other producers to cut crude supplies by 1 million barrels a day to re-balance markets and stabilize prices, Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa said.
Late on Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that OPEC and non-OPEC countries had nearly reached a deal to stabilize oil markets and prices, adding that he expected the deal to be announced before the end of the month.
Oil has fluctuated since August’s rally on speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russian Federation will agree next week in Algiers on a strategy to support prices amid an oversupply.
OPEC members are close to reaching an agreement on how to stabilize the market, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday at a press conference after speaking to his counterparts from Iran and Ecuador. The price for Brent crude oil was down 1.65 percent to open at $45.19 per barrel. The price of OPEC basket of fourteen crudes stood at $42.09 a barrel on September 19.
“The credibility of bullish production freeze rhetoric from Venezuela is understandably being questioned in the run-up to next week’s Algiers meeting, while worries about additional supply (Nigeria, Libya) worsening the global glut add to the mix”, noted analysts at traders Accendo Markets. A tanker returned to Libya’s third-biggest oil port to load a cargo one day after clashes between rival armed forces forced it to sail away to safety.
“Yet, we are seeing buying on the dips as people worry about any OPEC reduction in the near future”.
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Meanwhile, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said he is confident the cartel will reach an informal supply agreement, mentioning that now, some 3 billion barrels of crude oil remain unrealized.
