Monday, prices of oil held steady and hovers near two-week highs as Saudi Arabia mentioned that it would continue to restraint exports along with the ongoing efforts led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut and limit global supplies. The United States West Texas Intermediate settled at $63.57 per barrel, which was 2 cents higher from their previous close.
Meanwhile the international benchmark: Brent crude futures settled at $67.27 per barrel, which was down by 4 cents from their previous settlement. Both Brent and the U.S. West Texas Intermediate nearly capped a two-week high on early trading.
This steady and firm stance of oil prices were due to the comments given by Saudi Arabia on Saturday in New Delhi, indicating that they will continue to curb exports as the OPEC-led effort continues to persist. In accordance to this, Saudi Arabia also mentioned that they are hoping for the Organization along with its allies to be able to ease their output cut next year, as well as for OPEC to create a permanent strategy to normalize oil markets when the ongoing output cut ends this year.
In addition, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister: Khalid al-Falih also mentioned that Saudi Arabia’s oil production for January-March would be below the production cap, due to exports level averaging below 7 million barrels a day.