Investing.com - Oil prices ticked higher during North American hours on Monday, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said over the weekend that OPEC and non-OPEC countries were "close" to reaching a deal to stabilize oil markets and that he aimed for a deal to be announced this month.
OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia and other big Middle East crude exporters, will meet non-OPEC producers led by Russia at informal talks in Algeria between September 26 and 28.
According to market experts, chances that the meeting would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal. Instead, most believe that oil producers will continue to monitor the market and possibly postpone freeze talks to the official OPEC meeting in Vienna on November 30.
An attempt to jointly freeze production levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran's refusal to take part of the initiative, underscoring the difficulty for political rivals to forge consensus.
On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for November delivery inched up 35 cents, or 0.76%, to trade at $46.12 a barrel by 9:42AM ET (13:42GMT). The contract rose by as much as 1.8% earlier to a session peak of $46.62.
On Friday, London-traded Brent futures sank 82 cents, or 1.76%. Prices lost $2.04, or 4.67%, last week amid growing concerns over the possibility of returning crude supplies from Libya and Nigeria.
Reports of fighting around Libyan oil ports further supported gains. Eastern Libyan forces said they had re-established control over two ports where an ousted faction launched a counterattack on Sunday, briefly seizing one terminal.
The renewed fighting was likely to negatively affect the troubled nation's oil exports.
Elsewhere, crude oil for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange advanced 43 cents, or 0.99%, to $44.05 a barrel, coming off the session high of $44.50.
New York-traded oil futures plunged to a five-week low of $43.35 on Friday as signs of an ongoing recovery in U.S. drilling activity added to concerns over a supply glut.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week rose by 2 to 416, marking the 11th increase in 12 weeks.
Swelling Iranian exports further reinforced fears of a global glut. The third-biggest OPEC producer raised crude exports to more than 2 million barrels per day in August, nearing pre-sanctions levels.
The market is also waiting for the outcome of the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings on September 20-21 for further trading cues.