Oil traders cautious about mixed signals from Saudis before G20 and OPEC meetings By Reuters

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil markets are trading Tuesday , with mixed signals from the main exporter, Saudi Arabia, upcoming OPEC meeting in Austria next week.

Brent () International Crude Oil futures briefly fell below $ 60 a barrel before rising to $ 60.50 at 4:16 am GMT, two cents higher than their last balance sheet.

US. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were $ 51.48 per barrel, down 15 cents.

Saudi Arabia saw oil production reach a record high in November, an industry source said Monday, reporting between 11.1 and 11.3 million barrels a day during the month.

Oil prices have lost nearly a third of their value since early October, due to an emerging supply deficit and widespread weakness in the financial markets.

"Oil is on a slippery slope," said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research. at the Swiss bank Julius Baer.

Ruecker said the weak sentiment "stems from a surprisingly rapid and pronounced change in the state of mind of the market, ranging from fears of scarcity to overabundance problems" while the world economy was also slowing down.

Traders said they waited for the outcome of the meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) in Buenos Aires as well as that of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The leaders of the G20 countries, the largest economies in the world, met on November 30 and December 1 to discuss the trade war between Washington and Beijing. But Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia being the main producers of crude oil policy should also be discussed.

The G20 meeting will be followed by the annual meeting of OPEC at its headquarters in Vienna on 6 December. The producer cartel will discuss its production policy with non-OPEC producers, including Russia.

In favor of low oil prices for consumers, US President Donald Trump has lobbied his political ally, Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of OPEC, not to reduce the production.

Despite this, most badysts expect OPEC to begin retaining its offer soon.

"We believe that producers will start retaining their exports in the coming months, putting a floor on their prices," Capital Economics said. in a research note, adding that Brent is expected to be around 60 dollars a barrel by the end of 2019.

Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of the energy consulting firm FGE, warned that a failure to OPEC and Russia to significantly reduce its bid would mean that crude prices would "drop further, to 50 Brent a barrel and to 40 USD a barrel or less".