Oil price climbs as Opec maintains stable production

Oil prices reached their highest level in four years, at nearly $ 81 a barrel, after Saudi Arabia and Russia rejected Donald Trump's calls to increase their production.

Brent crude reached its highest level since November 2014 at $ 80.94 per barrel, up 2.7%, before falling back to $ 80.49.

Saudi Arabia is at the head of the Opec oil cartel, while Russia is the largest oil producer outside the group.

They met Sunday in Algiers to discuss levels of global supply and US sanctions against Iran.

The meeting has ended without formal agreement on an additional increase in supply.

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Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said at a press conference in Algiers that he had not "influenced prices."

Opec and other producers have discussed the increase in production of 500,000 barrels a day, Reuters reported.

Iranian crude sales have fallen as buyers are wary of sanctions imposed from November.

These fears have driven up crude oil prices, traders Trafigura and Mercuria predicting that prices could reach more than $ 100 a barrel early next year.

The President of the United States said in a tweet last week that Opec "must lower prices now!" by increasing world production.

Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said Sunday that Trump's tweet "is the biggest insult to Washington's allies in the Middle East."

Last year, Opec and other oil-producing countries, including Russia, announced that they would extend their agreement to reduce oil prices after falling below $ 50 a barrel. This agreement was confirmed at Sunday's meeting.

"We expect that the OPEC countries with spare capacity, led by Saudi Arabia, will increase production but will not fully offset the drop in Iran's barrels," said analyst Edward Bell. raw materials at Emirates NBD.

"If this were the case, the oil market would be even more uncomfortably tense than expected for 2019, as the available capacity erodes," Bell said.

US light crude was up $ 1.25 to $ 72.03 a barrel.