Oil extended gains toward $51 a barrel as Saudi Arabia said all producers participating in output cuts agree on prolonging the deal through the first quarter of 2018.
Futures climbed as much as 1.1 percent in New York after advancing 5.2 percent last week, the biggest weekly increase since March. An extension into next year will help producers reach their goal of trimming global stockpiles to a five-year average, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said Sunday. In the US, drillers targeting crude added rigs for an 18th week.
Oil has climbed as Saudi Arabia and non-Opec member Russia rally support for a nine-month extension to the output-cut deal by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. While stubbornly high global inventories have taken longer-than-expected to drain, signs that US supplies are starting to ease is adding to optimism. Opec meets in Vienna on Thursday.
“The market is gaining confidence from the agreement being adhered to and the material difference to the supply balance that’s expected over time,” said Ric Spooner, an analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “Oil is unlikely to advance too far. Higher, sustained prices run the risk of an increase in US production.”
West Texas Intermediate for June delivery, which expires Monday, rose as much as 56 cents to $50.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Total volume traded was about 42 percent above the 100-day average. The more-active July contract gained 33 cents to $51 at 7:45 a.m. in London.
Brent for July settlement climbed as much as 56 cents, or 1 percent, to $54.17 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices rose 5.5 percent last week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.91 to July WTI.
Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said almost all countries participating in the cut had agreed to extend it, though there was no consensus yet on how long the extension should be. “Some ministers say nine months, some ministers think six months,” al-Luaibi said Sunday in an interview in Jordan. Iraq is Opec’s second-largest producer; Saudi Arabia, the biggest.
Rigs targeting crude in the US are on the longest run of gains since August 2011, and climbed by 8 to 720, according to data Friday from Baker Hughes Inc.
The pound fell as the UK threatened to exit talks on its departure from Europe. A rally in Tencent Holdings Ltd. helped send Hong Kong shares back toward a 22-month high. The won surged even after North Korea conducted another ballistic missile test on Sunday.
Global equities are close to a record as investors bet global growth can withstand political turmoil in the US and Brazil, as well as further increases in interest rates. Money managers will be scrutinizing minutes released this week from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting, with a more than 80 percent chance that rates will go up again next month.
The Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said he’ll talk to James Comey on Monday and is pursuing any records of President Donald Trump’s meetings with the fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director. Trump continues his trip in the Middle East, where U.S. companies signed multi-billion dollar deals in the defense, energy and infrastructure industries.
“With Trump on a tour, the hope is we see less news over the next couple of days–a chance for the waters to settle,” said Andrew Sullivan, a managing director for sales trading at Haitong International Securities Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. “It’s another overhang on the market. We’ve got all these markets trading at highs and people don’t want to miss out, but they don’t want to be caught out.”
