Oil steadies ahead of producers’ meeting

Oil prices at both sides of the Atlantic were trading steady as investors turned cautious ahead of OPEC and non-OPEC meeting planned over the weekend.

At the time of writing, Brent was up 13 cents at $44/barrel. WTI was up 16 cents at $41.66/barrel.

Oil producers lead by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia plan to meet in Qatar on Sunday to discuss and possibly sign a production freeze accord, which analysts say is unlikely to cure the excess supply problem since markets would still remain oversupplied by almost 2 million barrels per day.

Consequently, traders are reluctant to take big bets on oil ahead of the producers’ meeting.