Crude Oil Prices Remain Supported Ahead of OPEC Decision

Investing.com – prices remained supported on Thursday, as traders awaited the outcome of a highly anticipated meeting of major oil producers.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude January contract was up 40 cents or about 0.70% at $57.70 a barrel by 09:50 a.m. ET (13:50 GMT).

Elsewhere, for February delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London was up 49 cents or about 0.78% at $63.02 a barrel.

Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producing countries on Thursday to decide whether to extend their current production agreement beyond a March 2018 deadline.

Most market analysts expect the oil cartel to extend output cuts for a further nine months until the end of 2018, but the terms were so far unclear, as Russia has sent mixed signals about whether it will back the move.

In November last year, OPEC and 11 other non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January 1 and June 30. The agreement was extended in May of this year for a period of nine months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.

Elsewhere, were up 0.22% at $1.740 a gallon, while lost 3.18% to $3.078 per million British thermal units.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.