
Tuesday saw a little increase in oil prices after Saudi Arabia indicated that OPEC would reduce output to reverse a recent decline in oil futures.
After a tumultuous day on Monday in which they plunged by more than $4 before reducing losses to trade nearly flat, Brent oil futures increased 32 cents to $96.80 a barrel.
The price of a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate crude increased by 37 cents to $90.73.
The benchmarks have decreased by around 12% and 8% this month, respectively.
Saudi Arabia, the organization’s leader, indicated on Monday that OPEC is prepared to cut output in order to reverse the current drop in oil prices that has been attributed to weak futures market liquidity and macroeconomic concerns while ignoring the extremely limited physical crude supplies.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, told Bloomberg that OPEC has the resources and adaptability to handle problems, according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.
Meanwhile, a pipeline system carrying oil from Kazakhstan via Russia has been damaged, raising fears about a drop in gas supplies while causing new energy supply disruptions for Europe.
In an effort to restrain price increases, Iran accused the United States on Monday of dragging its feet in efforts to resurrect Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement. Washington, however, refuted this accusation, saying that a deal was closer than two weeks ago due to apparent Iranian flexibility.
Participants in the US supply market awaited Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET release of industry statistics. According to a preliminary Reuters poll released on Monday, US crude oil and gasoline stockpiles likely decreased last week but distillate inventories grew slightly.