Crude oil prices rise on Saudi statement

Crude oil prices rose on Thursday after Saudi Arabia broke its silence on the issue of OPEC production cuts and announced that it supports the proposal to cut production from actual output from OPEC nations rather than taking the cut from its current official 28 million barrels per day quota. In his remarks, the Saudi oil minister also implied that production will be cut by another half billion barrels per day when the cartel meets in Nigeria in December.

Brent crude December contracts were 22 cents higher to $59.80 per barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery added 20 cents to $57.85 per barrel. Elsewhere, natural gas prices remained about the same, with Nymex November Henry Hub just a bit higher to $6.834 per million British thermal units, as inventories were up by 53 billion cubic feet. The gain in stockpiles was about what was expected.

In metals markets on Thursday, gold added 0.9 percent to $598.00 after going as high as $600.30 earlier in the day. Among base metals, lead added 0.7 to $1,505 per tonne, while aluminium was 1 percent higher to $2,741 per tonne, tin gained 1.6 percent to $9,860, zinc was up 1.8 percent to $3,950 per tonne on low inventories, and nickel added 2.8 percent to $31,750 per tonne. Copper held steady at $7,650 per tonne.