(Updates with close prices

Peter Nurse   

Investing.com — Oil prices rose ahead of next week’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, despite growing views that top crude producers could sanction a larger than previously agreed increase in output.

New York-traded WTI, which is the benchmark oil price in the United States, closed the October 1st trading session up 85c, or 1.1% at $75.88/barrel. WTI rose 2.6% this week for its sixth consecutive week. This has given the U.S. benchmark crude oil price an increase of 22%. 

London-traded crude, the global benchmark for oil, finished Thursday’s session at $79.28 per barrel, up 97 cents or 1.2%. Brent rose 1.9% over the course of the week. Global crude oil has increased in five out of six weeks and gained a cumulative 22%, just like WTI.

Monday’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its allies (known as OPEC+), was held. Reuters said that the organization was considering going beyond the current agreement of adding 400,000 barrels per month to supply, given consumer pressures such as India and the United States to reduce prices.

“Given the current environment, we believe it is safe to assume that an increase of at least 400Mbbls/d for November is guaranteed. The bigger uncertainty is whether the group will be willing to ease more aggressively,” said analysts at ING, in a note.

Crude oil has seen strong gains in this year’s year. Both contracts have increased by more than 50% since the start of China’s winter order. This means that oil prices, including diesel, will increase.

“Spot Asian LNG is trading at an oil equivalent of around US$177/bbl and so there is a clear incentive for gas-to-oil switching,” ING added. “This suggests that we should see stronger oil demand in the coming months, which means a tighter than expected oil market through until the end of the year.”