Middle East crude benchmarks gained on Thursday, with Dubai rising by $1 to $80.55 a barrel, as traders turned their focus on the oil-producing group’s ministerial meeting.

OPEC+ key ministers meet on Thursday to decide on the output policy with sources believing they are unlikely to make any changes to their current production cuts and will start unwinding some of them from October, despite recent sharp declines in oil prices.

Top ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, or OPEC+ as the group is known, will hold an online joint ministerial monitoring committee meeting (JMMC) on Thursday at 1100 GMT.

SAUDI OSP PREVIEW

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia may raise prices for crude it sells to Asia for the first time in three months in September, tracking a rise in Middle East benchmark Dubai, traders said on Thursday.

The official selling price (OSP) for flagship Arab Light crude to be loaded in September for Asia is expected to rise by 50 to 80 cents a barrel from the previous month, four refining sources told Reuters in a survey.

U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories last week fell more than the forecast, while distillate stockpiles rose unexpectedly, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

U.S. oil demand rose to a seasonal record in May as American cars guzzled the most gasoline since before the pandemic, data from the EIA showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan;)