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The price is still set for its biggest one-month fall in
November since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008,
having lost more than 22 percent so far.
A seemingly relentless rise in U.S. crude supply, together with
Saudi Arabia's insistence that it will not cut output on its own
to stabilise the market, earlier sent Brent crude to another
2018 low below $58 a barrel.
The Russian Energy Ministry held a meeting with the heads of
domestic oil producers on Tuesday, before a gathering in Vienna
of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies on Dec. 6-7.
"The idea at the meeting was that Russia needs to reduce. The
key question is how quickly and by how much," said one source
familiar with the talks between Russian oil firms and the
ministry.
Brent crude futures <LCOc1> were last up 51 cents on the day at
$59.27 a barrel, off an earlier session low of $57.50, while
U.S. crude futures <CLc1> rose 68 cents to $50.97.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is the world's
second biggest oil producer, said on Wednesday he was in touch
with OPEC and ready to continue cooperation on supply if needed,
but he was satisfied with an oil price of $60.
U.S. crude inventories have hit their highest in a year, and are
now only 80 million barrels below March 2017's record 535
million barrels, according to the Energy Information
Administration.
"WTI oil is now trading right around the $50 per barrel level, a
price last seen well over a year ago, as the current oversupply
situation has now manifested itself in 10 consecutive weekly
increases in U.S. oil inventories," said William O'Loughlin,
investment analyst at Australia's Rivkin Securities.
"We have seen huge increases in supply and the demand picture is
in question. However, we might see some movement on global trade
issues at the G20 meeting which starts on Friday," said Michael
McCarthy, chief strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking.
Investors in commodity markets are looking ahead to the meeting
of leaders of the Group of 20 nations (G20), the world's biggest
economies, on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, with the U.S.-China trade war
a key focus.
(Additional reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL and Naveen Thukral
in SINGAPORE; Editing by Jan Harvey and Adrian Croft)
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