Brent crude oil prices extend gains beyond $49

Oil prices have extended gains by more than one per cent following yesterday's meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

Global benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.15 per cent, or 56 cents, higher at $49.16 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the US benchmark, gained 1.21 per cent, or 56 cents, to trade at $46.90 per barrel.

Saudi Arabia pledged to cut exports to 6.6m barrels per day (bpd) from next month at yesterday's Opec meeting in St Petersburg, which is nearly 1m bpd lower than last year's export levels.

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Opec met to discuss its deal with a number of non-members to cut production by 1.8m bpd to prop up low oil prices, which is set to run until March 2018.

Oil prices have struggled to rise above $50 a barrel since the beginning of June.

Ramped up production in Nigeria and Libya, which are exempt from the cuts, have offset Opec's output reduction, but ministers did not discuss deeper cuts at the meeting.

"Crude Oilhas extended gains after the conclusion of yesterday’s Opec and non-Opec producers’ meeting in which de facto leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia promised harsher penalties for non-compliance, the former pledged to lower exports and Nigeria agreed to limit production once it reached 1.8m bpd," said analysts at Accendo Markets.

"Fresh US dollar weakness has also helped global benchmark Brent break above $48.75 for the first time since Friday, while US crude trades above $46.50."

Read more: Opec compliance with supply cuts slips to a six-month low

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