A worker walks atop a tanker wagon to check the freight level at an oil terminal on the outskirts of Kolkata November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/File Photo
Tokyo: Oil prices rose on Wednesday ahead of an OPEC meeting next week at which the producer club is expected to decide some form of supply cut to counter an emerging glut.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $51.88 per barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.6 percent from their last settlement.
International Brent crude oil futures were up 44 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $60.65 per barrel. Despite Wednesday's rise, oil prices have still lost almost a third of their value since early October, weighed down by an emerging supply overhang and by widespread weakness in financial markets.
The crude oil price slump since October is so far on par with the 2008 price crash and steeper than that of 2014/2015.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 6 to discuss output policy.
The OPEC meeting will follow a gathering by the Group of 20 (G20) nations, which includes the world's biggest economies, in Argentina this weekend, at which the Sino-American trade dispute as well as oil policy are expected to be discussed.
