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Brent crude futures were trading at $49.73 per barrel at 0924
GMT, up 47 cents from the previous close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 45 cents
at $47.43 a barrel.
Oil and gas operators in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico have shut
production equal to 168,334 barrels-per-day (bpd) of oil and 190
million cubic feet per day of natural gas as a precaution
against a tropical storm, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement said on Monday.
Oil prices have also been taking direction from speculation that
a meeting next month in Algeria of major producers including
members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
could yield a deal on production levels to support prices.
"Prices are still finding support from the expectations of an
agreement on production caps being reached at the late-September
meeting," Commerzbank said in a note.
Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told Reuters last
week he does not believe an intervention in oil markets is
necessary since the "market is moving in the right direction".
Iraq - which increased crude exports this month from its
southern ports compared with July - will continue ramping up
output, its oil minister said on Saturday.
A Nigerian militant group has said it has ended attacks on the
nation's oil and gas industry that have reduced the OPEC
member's output by 700,000 barrels a day to 1.56 million bpd.
But the prospect of a recovery in oil production from Libya
happening any time soon was tempered after the head of the
country's National Oil Corp. said budgetary delays from the new
government are undermining oil production.
"Oil prices are caught between concerns about over-supply and a
strong dollar on the one hand and the prospect of further
jawboning from OPEC members that some form of production freeze
could be on the cards," CMC Markets senior analyst Michael
Hewson said.
The huge global oil oversupply that has weighed on prices for
the past two years may not clear until the second half of 2017,
Shell's chief energy adviser Wim Thomas told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore; Editing
by Adrian Croft)
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