Oil steadies at $53.10 as market sentiments brighten

Brent oil is trading higher at $53.10 per barrel Tuesday morning as traders put more weight on the resolve of oil exporters to cap output.

Russian president Putin said that he backed efforts for a production cap in the clearest sign yet that the country would join any global supply pact.

“We support OPEC’s recent initiative to cap output and think that at the OPEC meeting in November this idea will materialize in a specific agreement, giving a positive signal to the markets and investors,”, Russia President Putin said.

Following Putin’s comments, Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two largest crude oil producers, said they’re ready to cooperate to limit output, helping send prices to a one-year high in London.

Russia is willing to join OPEC’s efforts to stabilize the market, which would require either a freeze or a cut, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at the World Energy Congress in Istanbul.

Many producers outside the group have expressed a willingness to cooperate on output caps, according to Saudi Arabia’s Energy and Industry Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who added that he was “optimistic” there’ll be a deal that, could lift prices as high as $60 by year-end.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, IEA, crude prices of $60 a barrel would probably trigger a strong increase in North American oil production while trimming global demand growth.

Brent crude reached a one-year high of $53.73 a barrel in London on Monday after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s two largest crude producers, pledged a joint effort to limit output to counter a global glut and prop up prices.