Oil prices soar on report that UAE offers talks on output cuts

Oil prices soared with US crude rebounding from a 2003 low, on reports that OPEC was willing to organize output cuts that could ease the global oversupply following a Wall Street Journal report that United Arab Emirates oil minister Suhail Al Mazrouei had said the OPEC cartel was willing to cooperate with other producers on trimming crude output.

The report was apparently based on a reporter’s tweet of the minister’s interview with Sky News Arabia. But it was enough to spark a huge turnaround in the market.

“We have another series of rumors about OPEC based upon a comment out of UAE and another attempt to support prices out of Venezuela, which has scaled back its requests and is just asking for OPEC and non-OPEC exporters to agree not to increase production,” he said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for March delivery shot up $3.23, 12.3 percent, to $29.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had lost more than $4 in the prior four sessions, sinking to the lowest level since May 2003. Brent crude for April delivery, the European benchmark, finished at $33.36 a barrel in London, up $3.30,11 percent.