Vienna talks set to finalize global oil limiting pact

OPEC will meet non-OPEC countries to finalize a global oil limiting pact on Dec. 10 in Vienna, two sources told Reuters on Saturday.
Two OPEC sources earlier said the meeting was due to take place in the Russian capital Moscow, but later said that plan had changed.
OPEC agreed this week to reduce output by around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) beginning in January in a bid to reduce global oversupply and prop up prices.
It hopes non-OPEC countries will contribute another 600,000 bpd to the cut. Russia has said it will reduce output by around 300,000 bpd.
Earlier, oil prices rallied for their best week in at least five years on Friday, steadying above $51 a barrel, following OPEC’s decision to cut crude output to rein in a global glut that has weighed on prices for more than two years.
After the deal was announced on Wednesday, the market focused on the implementation and impact of OPEC’s first output cuts since 2008, to be joined by Russia and possibly other non-OPEC producers.
Crude prices were pressured by data showing oil output in Russia rose in November to a post-Soviet high and Moscow’s plan to use its record November oil production as its baseline when it cuts output.
With cuts being implemented next year only against end-2016 levels, analysts said there was still a possibility that oversupply, which has halved oil prices since 2014, remains a factor next year.
“Global, and especially US, crude oil inventories are currently at extremely high levels after two years of massive oversupply,” Societe Generale analysts said.

“While the OPEC agreement is very significant and will result in some moderate global stockdraws next year, it is likely to take more than one year for crude inventory levels to return to more normal levels.”
Front-month Brent crude futures ended the session up at $54.46 a barrel, up 52 cents, 0.96 percent. The contract rose more than 15 percent for the week, its biggest gain since early 2009.
US crude settled at $51.68 per barrel, up 62 cents or 1.21 percent and notched its biggest weekly gain since early 2011, with a rise of 12 percent.
Oil drew support from a weak dollar, which slipped against a basket of currencies. Still, traders said profit-taking ahead of the weekend limited crude’s price gains.
“The petroleum markets have settled into quieter mixed flows as the waves created by Wednesday’s OPEC announcement gradually dissipate, with some light profit taking emerging in crude oil,” said Tim Evans, energy futures specialist at Citigroup.
“A weaker US dollar is typically supportive for commodity prices and may have helped steady crude oil from the lows in today’s trade.”
Meanwhile, US energy companies extended their recovery in oil drilling into a seventh month this week, data from energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc showed on Friday.

Source: Arab News