– Oil prices continued to trend higher on Wednesday morning in Asia as traders looked to an upcoming meeting of OPEC+ and the likelihood of more supply cuts to shore up prices.
Crude Oil WTI Futures went up by 0.55% to $56.41 a barrel by 9:33 PM ET (02:33 GMT), continuing on an upward trend this week.
Brent Oil Futures rose marginally by 0.13%, to $61.16 a barrel, after two days of increases.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporter Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, are scheduled to meet on Friday. On Thursday, OPEC members will meet in Vienna and Saudi Arabia pushing to curb supplies to shore up prices.
“A deeper cut is being preferred by a number of key members within OPEC,” Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban said. Reuters quoted Ghadhban as adding that Saudi Arabia preferring cuts.
Top non-OPEC producer Russia has also suggested that it is likely to reach a consensus with OPEC.
An agreement currently in place calls for producers to collectively cut their output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), which amounts to about 1.2% of global supply. Ghadhban suggested Sunday that production could be cut by another 400,000 bpd.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia raised prices for crude destined for Asia in January to the highest level in six years.
