Investing.com - Oil prices wavered between small gains and losses in European trading on Monday after reaching the strongest level in almost four weeks amid optimism that OPEC will extend its production-cut deal beyond June.
Brent oil for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London held firm at $53.52 a barrel by 4:10AM ET (08:10GMT). The global benchmark hit $53.77 on Friday, the most since March 9.
Elsewhere, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude May contract traded at $50.64 a barrel. It touched its highest since March 8 at $50.85 in the prior session.
Oil prices rose around 5% last week, the biggest weekly rise in four months.
Sentiment improved in wake of increasingly supportive rhetoric from a number of OPEC nations willing to extend production cuts into the second half of 2017.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day between January and June. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers have agreed to jointly cut by an additional 600,000 barrels per day.
In total, they agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the first six months of the year, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will meet in late April to present its recommendation on the fate of the pact. A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.
Oil has been under pressure in recent weeks amid concern that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production and swelling stockpiles in the U.S. could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 10 last week, the 11th weekly increase in a row. That brought the total count to 662, the most since September 2015.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week that crude oil inventories increased by 867,000 barrels to yet another all-time high of 534.0 million. It was the 12th weekly build in U.S. stockpiles in the past 14 weeks, feeding concerns about a global glut.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for May dipped 0.2 cents, or 0.2%, to $1.700 a gallon, while May heating oil was little changed at $1.575 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for May delivery added 3.8 cents to $3.228 per million British thermal units.