By Adedapo Adesanya
Brent Crude went close to $35 per barrel on Friday after traders renewed hopes in the oil market, with talks of a cut in the work when oil producers meet on Monday.
Brent crude oil rose by 16.7 percent or $5.01 to $34.95 per barrel on Friday night while West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 14.1 percent or $3.57 to $28.89 per barrel.
Prices started making upward movement on Thursday on indications that Saudi Arabia and Russia may end their oil price war following US intervention.
US President Donald Trump said he expected the two sides to cut supply, while Saudi Arabia called for an emergency meeting of members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other oil producers.
On its part, Russia indicated interest to join the discussion in cutting crude oil production to help global oil prices which have shed the highest ever drops recorded in history.
President Vladimir Putin said Friday Russia was willing to help stabilize the market by joining other countries in a cutting 10 million barrels of oil in output.
“I think we need to unite forces to balance the market and limit, with these coordinated actions, oil production,” he said.
Mr Putin noted that he had spoken on the phone with President Trump about oil markets, but did not specify whether they had discussed if the United States would join a production cut with OPEC and Russia.
Russia’s energy minister, Mr Alexander Novak, also said that Russia would join a conference call of OPEC and other oil-producing nations on Monday.
The market reaction to this news was positive as a cut of 10 million barrels per day would amount to about 10 percent of global output. Though minimal, it will at least postpone many worries about an inevitable oversupply to fill storages around the world.
Market analysts noted that there was too much oil, which does not correspond with enough demand. So, countries have to curb production. If they don’t do it, price pressures are going to force some producers to stop production.
In March, oil prices crashed more than 30 percent to their lowest level in nearly three years, following outcome of the meeting between OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia and its allies led by Russia, where the latter refused to agree to extra output cut.
Modupe Gbadeyanka