Brent crude and WTI: Oil prices jump back ahead of crucial meeting of producers
Oil prices shook off early losses today to gain around two per cent, ahead of Sunday's crunch meeting between the world's major producers.
Prices had earlier dipped on doubts that a production freeze from some of the countries taking part in the talks in Doha will be enough to balance markets.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 0.2 per cent to $41.77 per barrel this morning, having fallen as low as $41.41 earlier. WTI meanwhile was down to around $39.
However, Brent then rose by over two per cent to more than $42.80 – at one point hitting $43.06 – while WTI jumped by 2.2 per cent to hit a high of $40.75 at one point.
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"Prices will move back and forth this week on expectations for Doha," said Commerzbank senior oil analyst Carsten Fritsch.
Goldman Sachs warned that a potential freeze deal would do little to ease the current oversupply of oil.
"A production freeze at recent production levels would not accelerate the rebalancing of the oil market as Opec (excluding Iran) and Russian production levels have this year remained close to our 2016 average annual forecast of 40.5m barrels per day," they said.
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Barclays also voiced doubts, saying that the deal could have a limited impact because the producers who are able to raise output this year are unlikely to join.
Iran has vowed to return its oil output to levels enjoyed before the imposition of economic sanctions at the hands of the US and EU.