Crude oil prices are up sharply Monday morning, extending gains to a sixth successive session, amid easing worries about global growth and energy demand after reports indicated a possible meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and China's vice president Wang Qishan later this month.
Meanwhile, the vice ministerial level talks between U.S. and Chinese officials are scheduled to commence later in the day at Beijing.
Oil's uptick is also due to recent reports that said supply levels dropped last week. Traders are also expecting that the decision of OPEC and some non-OPEC members including Russia to reduce crude output by 1.2 million barrels per day from this month will significantly alter supply - demand imbalance in the market.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February are up $1.44, or about 3%, at $49.40 a barrel. On Friday, crude oil futures ended up $0.87, or 1.9%, at $47.96 a barrel, extending gains to a fifth successive session.
Brent crude futures for February are up $1.71, or 3%, at $58.76 a barrel.
Last week, a survey from Reuters showed oil output from OPEC fell by 530,000 barrels a day to 32.6 million a day in December, marking the sharpest pullback since January 2017 as top exporter Saudi Arabia throttled back production.
Data released by the Energy Information Administration on Friday showed crude inventories in the U.S. rose by 7,000 barrels in the week to December 28, beating expectations for a drop of more than 3 million barrels.
Distillate stockpiles were up by 9.5 million barrels last week, the biggest weekly jump in two years. Gasoline stocks rose by 6.9 million barrels, more than thrice the expected increase.
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