Oil bounces from multi-year lows as hopes of OPEC+ cut, stimulus offset virus impact

* Some OPEC members mull additional 1 mln bpd output cut
* Central banks expected to cut interest rates, support
markets
* Brent crude hits lowest since July 2017
* WTI touches Dec 2018 low

By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, March 2 (Reuters) - Oil prices pared losses after
earlier hitting multi-year lows on Monday as hopes that a bigger
than expected production cut from OPEC and stimulus from central
banks could offset economic gloom from the coronavirus outbreak.
Brent crude LCOc1 was at $50.32 a barrel, up 65 cents, or
1.3%, by 0105 GMT, after earlier dropping to $48.40, the lowest
since July 2017.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 hit a 14-month low
of $43.32 a barrel, before recovering to $45.23, up 47 cents, or
1.1%.
Flight cancellations and travel bans by countries worldwide
sparked fears about the global economy, leading to the biggest
weekly stock market rout since the 2008 financial crisis last
week. China's factory activity also shrunk at the fastest pace
ever in February, underscoring the colossal damage from the
coronavirus outbreak on the world's second-largest economy.
"On the one hand, it's pretty negative on worldwide crude
oil and product demand," said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity
research at the National Australia Bank.
On the other hand, there was news Saudi Arabia was pushing
for a million barrels per day cut to be agreed this week, while
central banks globally were increasingly signalling an appetite
to intervene and support markets by cutting interest rates, he
said.
"So it's a balance and it's going to be pretty volatile."
Several key members of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) are mulling an additional production
cut of 1 million barrels per day, more than the 600,000 bpd
proposed last month, on growing fears that the virus outbreak
will hit oil demand badly. OPEC and its allies including Russia, a grouping known as
OPEC+, have already been curbing oil output by 1.7 million bpd
under a deal that runs to the end of March.
"Current prices do not work for most of the OPEC+ group as
they stand and Russia is not as price agnostic as it endeavours
to seem," said Helima Croft global head of commodity strategy at
RBC Capital Markets.
"We think Saudi Arabia will likely be able to rally the rest
of the producers for a cut of at least 1+ million bpd."