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The silhouette of an oil pump is seen at sunset.
Pramote Polyamate | fake images
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, cutting losses overnight the day before a meeting of OPEC and its allies, and investors bet that producers will largely agree to extend their supply restrictions until May.
Brent crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $ 64.29 a barrel at 0202 GMT, after falling 1.3% on Tuesday.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.3%, to $ 60.70 a barrel, after falling 1.6% in the previous session.
“The expectation is that OPEC + will show supply discipline, so that’s turning the market around,” Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together dubbed OPEC +, will meet on Thursday, after a month in which oil prices have skyrocketed due to concerns about prolonged pandemic shutdowns in Europe, the slow pace of vaccine launches and the increase in COVID-19 cases in India. and Brazil, in the face of growing optimism about US growth.
Last month, OPEC + surprised the market by agreeing to agree to extend supply restrictions, with minor exceptions for Russia and Kazakhstan, at a time when demand for fuel appeared to be recovering.
“Given what has happened since then, the justification is even less to add offer. Therefore, we believe that they will maintain that discipline at that meeting (on April 1),” Dhar said.
Under existing restrictions, OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, have cut just over 7 million barrels per day (bpd), while Saudi Arabia has made a cut. additional voluntary 1 million bpd.
Saudi Arabia is prepared to back an extension of supply cuts through June, including its own voluntary cut, to boost prices, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters this week.
In addition to the view that they should contain supply, data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group on Tuesday showed that US crude oil stocks rose by 3.9 million barrels in the week to 26 May. March, well above analysts’ forecasts in a Reuters poll for a build of about 100,000 barrels.
Data on US inventories are due Wednesday to the US Energy Information Administration.
