Oil prices bounce on hopes of OPEC deal

“The US EIA produced a higher-than-expected crude inventory figure, but this was subsumed into Opec gossip”, said OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against 10 major peers, rose 0.5 per cent, reaching the highest intraday level since February.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is moving closer to finalizing its first deal since 2008 to limit output, with most members prepared to offer Iran flexibility on production volumes, ministers and sources said. “We won’t turn back on the decision made in September in Algeria”. Production levels for each member country will be decided at the meeting which will be held on November 30 in Vienna, Austria.

In September, OPEC agreed to trim output to 32.5 million-33 million barrels per day, down from 33.64 million barrels a day in October to help rebalance oil markets.

Neither Iran nor Iraq will send their ministers to Doha. But rising oil production and changing fundamentals “make a credible OPEC cut all the more hard to achieve”, Jason Gammel, analyst at USA investment bank Jefferies, said. If an agreement were reached, Russian Federation was prepared to join and cap output for six months or longer, Novak said.

Iran’s OPEC governor has said he is optimistic that during the next formal talks between the group in Vienna on November 30 a solution will be agreed upon.

Iran has previously said it would accept a freeze at between 4.0 and 4.2mn bpd. In Libya and Nigeria, output is recovering after violence and militant attacks disrupted oil infrastructure.

Refiners used 16.1 million barrels a day last week, up 309,000 barrels from a week earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration. “Iraq should be part of the compromise, Iraq is part of OPEC”.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh won’t be going to the Qatari capital, according to an Iranian oil official who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak to the media.

“Not for OPEC, not for anybody else”, said Falah al-Amri, Iraq’s OPEC governor and head of the country’s state marketer SOMO.

The Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia warned Trump that the incoming president will risk the health of his country’s economy if he acts on his election promises to block oil imports.

Oil extended its losses for a third day as a rally in the USA dollar offset optimism by Saudi Arabia that Opec will finalise a deal this month to curb output and stabilise prices.