Oil prices steady, focus turns to G20 gathering

SEOUL, June 28 (Reuters) - Oil prices were steady on Friday,
with focus shifting to the G20 summit where a scheduled meeting
between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi
Jinping has stirred hopes that trade tensions could ease.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures were up 5 cents, or 0.08%, at
$66.60 per barrel by 0043 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures were
down 2 cents, or 0.03%, at $59.41 a barrel.
The leaders of the G20 countries meet on Friday and Saturday
in Osaka, Japan, but the most anticipated meeting is between
Trump and Xi on Saturday. A trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies
has weighed on oil prices, fanning fears that slowing economic
growth could dent demand for the commodity.
"While there are no expectations of a truce between the two
parties, it will set the scene for the OPEC meeting a couple of
days later," ANZ Bank said in a note.
Trump said on Wednesday a trade deal with Chinese President
Xi was possible this weekend but he is prepared to impose U.S.
tariffs on most remaining Chinese imports should the two
countries disagree. "Even if U.S.-China trade talks turn positive, we think OPEC
will extend the current production cuts until the end of the
year. However, deeper cuts look unlikely, given the rising
supply issues," ANZ said.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
some non-members including Russia, known as OPEC+, will hold
meetings on July 1-2 in Vienna to decide whether to extend their
supply cuts.
OPEC+ agreed to curb their oil output by 1.2 million barrels
per day from Jan.1.
Russian President Vladimir said in an interview with the
Financial Times on Thursday that the OPEC-led supply cut helped
stablise oil markets and the future of the output deal was
expected to be on the agenda at the G20 summit. Tensions between the United Sates and Iran have also been
keeping markets on edge.
A week after U.S. President Donald Trump called off air
strikes on Iran at the last minute, the prospect that Tehran
could soon violate its nuclear commitments has created
additional diplomatic urgency to find a way out of the crisis.