Investing.com - Oil prices added to strong overnight gains in North American trade on Monday, as sentiment was boosted amid renewed hopes for an agreement among exporters to freeze output.
According to people familiar with the matter, several OPEC members, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Kuwait, are now pushing for fresh talks on setting new limits for oil production this fall in an effort to stabilize the market.
Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada, who is serving as OPEC president this year, said in a statement on Monday the cartel will hold on an informal meeting in Algeria on September 26-28.
However, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak currently sees no grounds for new talks on freezing production, but is open to negotiations.
An attempt to jointly freeze production levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran's refusal to take part of the initiative.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for October delivery rose to an intraday peak of $45.15 a barrel, the most since July 27. It was last at $45.09 by 13:40GMT, or 9:40AM ET, up 82 cents, or 1.85%.
London-traded Brent futures are down almost 15% since peaking at $52.80 in early June, as prospects of increased exports from Middle Eastern and North African producers, such as Iraq, Nigeria and Libya, added to concerns that a glut of oil products will cut demand for crude by refiners.
Elsewhere, crude oil for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 97 cents, or 2.32%, to trade at $42.77 a barrel after touching $42.77, a level not seen since July 27.
New York-traded oil shed 13 cents, or 0.31%, on Friday after a report showed the number of U.S. oil rigs rose for a sixth straight week, underlining worries about a global glut of crude.
According to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week increased by seven to 381, the sixth consecutive weekly rise and the ninth increase in 10 weeks.
WTI crude futures are nearly 18% lower from their 2016 highs above $50 a barrel scaled in early June, as signs of an ongoing recovery in U.S. drilling activity combined with growing gasoline stockpiles weighed.
According to market experts, elevated stocks of fuel products amid slowing global demand growth is expected to keep prices under further pressure in the near-term.