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Oil prices rose more than 2% on Monday after the new Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, accredited expectations that he would stick with his country’s policy of limiting crude output to support prices.
Prince Abdulaziz, son of Saudi Regent Salman and a long-time member of the Saudi delegation to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), replaced Khalid al-Falih on Sunday.
“The make a move is bullish for oil prices,” Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in a note. “Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is recognized as an oil production cutter. He has been instrumental in securing production cuts in the past.”
Crude prices were also helped by comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said Monday that Iran has a secret atomic facility and called for action against the Middle Eastern nation.
Brent crude futures gained $1.31, or 2.3%, to $62.58 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Halfway (WTI) crude futures rose $1.33, or 2.4%, to $57.85 a barrel.
Prince Abdulaziz said the pillars of Saudi Arabia’s management would not change and a global deal to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day would survive.
He added that the pretended OPEC+ alliance between OPEC and non-member countries including Russia was staying for the long term.
Russia’s oil put out in August exceeded its quota under the OPEC+ agreements.
OPEC oil output in August rose for the first month this year as towering supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by Saudi Arabia and losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran.
On Sunday, the Unanimous Arab Emirates’ energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said OPEC and non-OPEC producers were “committed” to succeed ining oil market balance.
The OPEC+ deal’s joint ministerial monitoring committee meets on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
Trade and geopolitical forces are affecting the market, Mazrouei said.
Executives at the annual Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference said on Monday they foresee oil prices this year to be pressured by uncertainties surrounding the global economy, the U.S.-China trade war and increasing U.S. supplies.
To another place, China’s crude oil imports gained about 3% in August from a month earlier, customs data screened on Sunday, buoyed by a recovery in refining margins despite a persistent surplus of oil products and tepid demand.
The United Delineates is “very concerned” about China’s purchases of Iranian oil, Dan Brouillette, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, said on Monday.
The Coalesced States last year withdrew from a nuclear deal that world powers had done with Iran in 2015, and reimposed okays to strangle Iran’s vital oil trade.