Oil settled above $78 a barrel on Friday, just shy of a three-year high reached earlier this week, on expectations that OPEC ministers will maintain a steady pace in raising supply.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, meets on Monday. The group is slowly unwinding record output cuts made last year, although sources say it is considering doing more to boost production.
Brent crude rose 97 cents, or 1.2 percent, to settle at $79.28 in its fourth weekly rise. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 85 cents to settle at $75.88 in a sixth week of gains.
Brent has risen over 50 percent this year and reached a three-year high of $80.75 on Tuesday.
OPEC+ is facing pressure from consumers such as the United States and India to produce more to help reduce prices as demand has recovered faster than anticipated in some parts of the world.
“If OPEC+ sticks to the script and only delivers the planned 400,000 bpd increase in November, energy markets will shortly be seeing $90 oil prices,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, adding that any increase smaller than 600,000 barrels should boost prices.
Oil is also finding support as a surge in natural gas prices globally prompts power producers to move away from gas. Generators in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Middle East have started switching fuels.
“The most likely reason for stable oil prices is that investors believe the supply-demand gap will widen as the power crisis worsens,” said Naeem Aslam, analyst at Avatrade.
US energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a fourth week in a row as more storm-hit offshore units resumed service in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rigs rose by 7 to 528 in the week to Oct. 1, the highest since April 2020, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co BKR.N said in its closely followed report on Friday.
Meanwhile, Britain will deploy military tanker drivers to deliver fuel to gas stations, many of which were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week that has seen panic-buying, fights at the pumps and drivers hoarding petrol in water bottles.
With an acute shortage of truck drivers straining supply chains to breaking point the government said on Friday 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of which are drivers, will complete their training over the weekend and start deliveries on Monday.
“While the situation is stabilizing, our Armed Forces are there to fill in any critical vacancies and help keep the country on the move by supporting the industry to deliver fuel to forecourts,” said defense minister Ben Wallace.
Shortages of workers in the wake of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have sown disarray through some sectors of the economy, disrupting deliveries of fuel and medicines and leaving more than 100,000 pigs backed up on farms.
Retailers said more than 2,000 gas stations were dry and Reuters reporters across London and southern England said dozens of pumps were still closed. – Reuters
