Oil prices rose on Wednesday, paring overnight losses a day ahead of a meeting of OPEC and its allies, with investors betting the producers will largely agree to extend their supply curbs into May.
Brent crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.2, to 64.29 a barrel at 0202 GMT, after falling 1.3 on Tuesday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures jumped 15 cents, or 0.3, to 60.70 a barrel, after falling 1.6 in the previous session.
The expectation is OPEC is going to show supply discipline, so thats pivoting the market, said Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together called OPEC, are set to meet on Thursday, following a month in which oil prices have whipsawed on concerns about extended pandemic lockdowns in Europe, slow vaccine rollouts and rising COVID19 cases in India and Brazil, pitted against growing optimism on growth in the United States.
OPEC last month surprised the market by agreeing to agreed to extend supply curbs, with small exceptions for Russia and Kazakhstan, at a time when fuel demand appeared to be recovering.
Given whats happened since then, the rationale is even less so to add supply. So we think theyll maintain that discipline in that meeting on April 1, Dhar said.
Under existing curbs, OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and nonOPEC producers, led by Russia, have cut just over 7 million barrels per day bpd, while Saudi Arabia has made an additional voluntary reduction…