AFP, Singapore :
Oil prices edged up in Asia on Tuesday as OPEC member Venezuela indicated a deal to limit output is close and after fresh fighting in Libya. But gains were limited by continuing worries about a supply glut.
Major crude producer states are due to meet in Algeria next week to discuss the global supply crisis and overproduction that has hammered prices for two years.
On Sunday Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro said participants in the talks — the OPEC cartel and Russia — are now working on a deal and that he had discussed the issue with his counterparts from Iran and Ecuador. Without revealing details, Maduro said he hoped to make a firm announcement by the month’s end.
At about 0715 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 80 cents at $43.83 and Brent had risen 78 cents to $46.55. WTI sank 6.6 percent last week and Brent fell 4.5 percent.
Crude has been dogged by a stubborn supply glut since late 2014, with prices hitting near 13-year lows at the start of this year. An attempt at a deal in April fell apart when Iran, which had just emerged from years of Western nuclear-linked sanctions, refused to take part.
OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note: “Noises from OPEC about a possible deal on production cuts, clashes around a Libyan export terminal scheduled to make its first deliveries since 2104 combined to see both Brent and WTI bounce anaemically.”
