Oil futures rose for a fifth day, rising to their highest in almost six weeks, on optimism that OPEC and other producing countries may agree to extend output cuts to support prices, reports Reuters.
Brent LCOc1 was up 31 cents, or 0.5 per cent, at $62.90 a barrel by 0544 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were 32 cents, or 0.6 per cent, higher at $58.17 a barrel.
Brent earlier climbed to its highest since Aug. 01, while US crude rose to the highest since July 31.
WTI gained more than 2.0 per cent on Monday, while Brent finished the day 1.7 per cent higher as the market reacted positively to the appointment by Saudi Arabia’s king of his son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, as energy minister on Sunday.
Prince Abdulaziz, a long-time member of the Saudi delegation to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said the pillars of Saudi Arabia’s policy would not change and a global deal to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day would be maintained.
He added that the so-called OPEC+ alliance, made up of OPEC and non-OPEC producers including Russia, would be in place for the long term.
“It’s a lot of market movement on some pretty strong speculation ... so maybe people are just excited that the Saudis are being pretty proactive on this front,” said Phin Ziebell, senior economist at National Australia Bank, referring to hopes for an extension of the production cuts.