Oil Climbs to Four-Month High On Commodities Rally

Brent crude prices jumped to a four-month high on Monday, April 11, as a rally in wider commodities markets buoyed buying ahead of a meeting of oil producers in Doha next Sunday.

The meeting will be centered on freezing current output levels.

Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, were up 92 cents at 42.86 dollars a barrel, having touched a session high of 43.06 dollars, the highest level since Dec. 7.

The gains build on last week’s rally, when crude rose 6 per cent in one session on the back of a drop in the rig count of U.S. drillers to its lowest since November 2009.

U.S. WTI crude also rose on Monday, gaining 82 cents to 40.54 dollars a barrel and touching an intra-day high of 40.75 dollars, near a three-week high.

“All commodities are going up. It could be (investors) buying into dips every now and then as people are looking for opportunities to get long,” Natixis commodity strategist Abhishek Deshpande said.

Oil traders continue to place hopes on the oil producers’ meeting to prop up crude prices that have been severely depressed by a global supply glut.

But analysts at Goldman Sachs, who expect oil to average 35 dollars a barrel in the second quarter, cautioned that the outcome of the meeting in Qatar could prove bearish for the market.