Oil continues its gains and hovers at the highest level in 4 months

Oil prices continued their gains on Monday, August 7, to touch their highest levels since mid-April, after Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the major oil producers, pledged to continue cutting supplies for another month, aiming to continue balancing global markets and supporting prices.

By 00:23 GMT, Brent crude futures rose 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $86.49 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $83.05 a barrel.

The two raw materials recorded gains for the sixth consecutive week last week, which is the longest period of gains since December 2021 and January 2022.

Prices have received support thanks to several factors in the past few weeks, including expectations of a reduction in the pace of US interest rate hikes, a reduction in OPEC + supplies, and hopes to stimulate a recovery in oil demand in China, the largest importer of crude in the world, after a slump in the second quarter.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, on Thursday extended its voluntary production cuts by 1 million barrels per day until the end of September, and indicated it might extend them again or increase the amount of the reduction.

The kingdom’s production in September will be around 9 million bpd.

Russia also said on Thursday that it will cut oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day in September.