(Bloomberg) -- Oil was steady at the open ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Monday to discuss production policy amid a rapidly tightening market.
Futures in New York traded near $76 a barrel after capping a sixth weekly gain on Friday. The alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, may have to consider raising output in November by more than its planned 400,000 barrels a day, according to some industry consultants and traders. OPEC’s own modeling is showing demand will outstrip supply over the next two months.
Read more: OPEC+ Will Drive Oil Prices Over Coming Months, Says Vitol
The market has tightened significantly recently following a robust rebound in demand from economies recovering from the pandemic and a supply disruption in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Ida. Surging natural gas prices ahead of winter have also raised the prospect of higher volumes of oil products such as diesel being consumed in power generation.
The oil market has firmed in a bullish structure due to the tightening. The prompt timespread for Brent was 78 cents a barrel in backwardation -- where near-dated contracts are more expensive than later-dated ones. That compares with 56 cents at the start of last month.
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