Oil prices rise as Trump hails positive meeting with Kim

SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Oil prices rose alongside global markets yesterday as US President Donald Trump said a summit in Singapore with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un had made “a lot of progress,” boosting hopes of a deal to end a nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula.

Brent crude futures were trading at $76.72 a barrel at 0640 GMT, up 26 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $66.42 a barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.5 percent.

Global markets were lifted after Trump said the closely watched summit with Kim was “really very positive” after he and Kim signed a document following talks.

Beyond the Singapore summit, crude has been generally supported by healthy demand and voluntary production cuts led by OPEC.

Some oil market fundamentals, however, point to lower prices, with output from the three biggest producers, Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia on the rise.

Russian production has reportedly climbed from below 11 million barrels per day (bpd) to 11.1 million bpd in early June.

In the US, output has risen by almost a third in the last two years, to a record of 10.8 million bpd.

“The deluge of US crude production continues to hold the top-side in check,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading at futures brokerage OANDA.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia – which has so far led OPEC’s efforts to withhold supplies – is also showing signs of raising production.

In physical oil markets, Middle East light crude grades are set to trade at discounts against their respective official selling prices (OSPs) amid ample supplies to Asia, including from the US, four trade sources said.

Saudi Arabia has told OPEC that it increased oil output to a little more than 10 million bpd in May, up from 9.9 million bpd in April.