Brent oil futures touched a four-month high on Tuesday as investor confidence grew in last week’s deal by oil producers to freeze output levels in order to stem a two-year price rout.
Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 reached a four-month high of $51.37 a barrel, but relinquished some of the gains by 1358 GMT, trading at $51.10, up 21 cents on the previous close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 touched the highest level in three months at $49.13 a barrel earlier in the session before retreating to $48.87, up 6 cents day on day.
A landmark deal by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week has revived hopes that producers will limit a growing glut of oil supplies and ultimately help oil prices recover.
Iran, which is allowed to produce “maximum levels that make sense” as part of the OPEC deal, said on Tuesday that OPEC members’ cooperation with non-OPEC producers would play an important role in stabilising oil prices.
A delegation from Iran’s energy ministry will visit Russia in October-November to present potential oil deals to Russian companies.
Russian news agency Interfax reported Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying that experts from Russia and Saudi Arabia would determine a date for the energy ministries’ meeting in the near future.
Despite confidence in a production freeze, some OPEC members continue to raise output.
via Reuters
