A statement by Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on balancing oil markets has been met by a flurry of support by OPEC+ member states.
The United Arab Emirates is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s thinking on crude oil markets, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The Minister on Monday flagged the possibility of introducing production cuts to balance the oil market.
Sudan Energy and Petroleum Minister Mohamed Abdallah on Friday expressed support for comments made by his Saudi counterpart.
He said in a statement that his country supports OPEC+ efforts to maintain market stability in the face of distortions and volatility.
He also underlined the importance of the statement “that was made... by the Saudi Energy Minister about market instability and volatility of prices.”
Sudan, which is a member of OPEC+, also expressed its full support for the mechanism formulated under OPEC+ alliance “which provided the necessary tools, inducing adjusting oil production, to attend to all market challenges”, the statement added.
Iraq, Algeria, Libya, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Congo and Equatorial Guinea have all made similar statements ahead of a September 5 meeting of OPEC+, which unites members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers including Russia.
Oil prices rose as much as $1 on Friday on signs of improving fuel demand, though an upcoming speech from the US Federal Reserve chairman capped further gains.
Brent crude futures climbed $1.53, or 1.54%, to $100.87 a barrel by 10:51 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.20 cents, or 1.3%, to $93.72.
Both contracts slumped by about $2 on Thursday but are on track for a weekly gain of around 4% for Brent and 3% for WTI.
Better than expected figures concerning the US economy helped to dispel recession fears.
The US economy contracted at a more moderate pace than initially thought in the second quarter as consumer spending blunted some of the drag from a sharp slowdown in inventory accumulation.
Additional price support came from the Kingdom on Monday flagging the possibility of production cuts to balance the oil market and offset the return of Iranian barrels to oil markets should Tehran clinch a nuclear deal with the West.
“Speculators could view this as an invitation to bet on further price rises without the need to fear any more pronounced price declines,” Commerzbank said in a note.
