Oil price started the week on a stronger footing, buoyed by comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin that revived the hopes of a deal by OPEC members to curb output. OPEC members are set to meet on November 30th in Vienna to discuss and follow up on a deal that was introduced in an informal meeting in Algeria in September. According to the deal, the OPEC members are set to set a ceiling on the production from the cartel and keep it between 32.5 million barrels per day and 33 million barrels per day. Iran, Libya, and Nigeria have been given special exemptions from the deal. Russia has acted as a key facilitator of the deal.

Recently, there have been doubts over the deal as the production from the OPEC countries continue to rise and currently at 33.8 million barrels per day as of October and some member countries like Iraq has called for exemption from any production cuts. Last week the hope of a deal got revived over the comments from Russian energy minister Alexander Novak, who expressed his confidence in concluding the deal.

Over the weekend, at the Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation in Peru, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he sees few hurdles to OPEC in finalizing the agreement. He said, “Whether an agreement will be reached, I cannot say for one hundred percent, but there is a strong likelihood that it will be achieved.”

WTI is currently trading at $46.9 per barrel, up 1.2 percent so far today and Brent is trading at $0.5 per barrel premium.