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Oil prices rose on Monday, with Brent remaining above $60 per barrel on expectations that an OPEC-led production cut due to expire next March would be extended.
Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $60.73 per barrel at 0802 GMT, 29 cents or 0.48 per cent above their last settlement and near their highest level since July 2015.
They have risen more than 36 per cent since from 2017-lows marked in June, reports Reuters.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 16 cents, or 0.3 per cent, at $54.06 a barrel.
The OPEC plus Russia and nine other producers have agreed to hold back about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to get rid of a supply glut.
The pact runs to March 2018, but Saudi Arabia and Russia, who are leading the effort, have both voiced their support to extend the agreement.
OPEC is scheduled to meet officially at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on Nov. 30.
Traders said that a 900,000 bpd export capacity increase from Iraq’s southern ports to 4.6 million bpd, reported on Sunday, had prevented Brent from rising further.
Meanwhile, US production C-OUT-T-EIA is up by almost 13 per cent since mid-2016, resulting in a steep WTI discount of $6.50 per barrel against Brent CL-LCO1=R, making US crude exports attractive.
Confidence in the oil market is evident in the way financial traders have positioned themselves.
Hedge funds and other money managers raised their bullish wagers on US crude futures and options in the week to Oct. 24, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
The speculator group raised its combined futures and options position in New York and London by 15,041 contracts to 280,634 during the period.
Despite this, some analysts were cautious, pointing to technical chart indicators.