Investing.com - Oil prices rose to a three-week high during European hours on Monday, adding to last week's strong gains on growing expectations that global oil producers will find a way to cap output at a meeting scheduled for the end of this month.
Brent oil for January delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London rallied to an intraday peak of $47.72 a barrel, the most since November 2. It was last at $47.60 by 4:00AM ET (09:00GMT), up 69 cents, or 1.47%.
London-traded Brent futures logged a gain of $2.11, or 4.5%, last week, after posting losses in each of the past four weeks.
Elsewhere, crude oil for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up 69 cents, or 1.49%, to $47.05 a barrel, after touching $47.20 earlier, a level not seen since November 1.
Last week, New York-traded oil futures rose $2.28, or 5%, after three straight weekly declines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sees a “high probability” that an agreement to curb oil production will be reached at a meeting later this month.
Speaking at a news conference in Lima after an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Sunday, Putin said Russia is willing to freeze its crude oil output at current levels.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s oil minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said late Sunday the country plans to offer three new proposals this week aimed at bolstering the unity of the group.
Additionally, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said it’s “highly probable” members will reach a consensus, according to comments published by the country’s Shana news service.
Speculation that OPEC is moving closer toward finalizing its first deal since 2008 to limit oil output mounted amid reports that member countries proposed Iran cap its oil output at 3.92 million barrels per day (bpd) in a meeting on Friday. Tehran has previously said it would accept a freeze at between 4.0 and 4.2 million bpd.
The oil group reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, OPEC said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.