Oil edges higher ahead of OPEC meeting

Opec

Oil prices rose modestly in Asia on Monday ahead of a producers’ meeting this week that might agree to cap supplies.

But analysts warned that optimism should be tempered by experience of two years of gluts and disagreement among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC and Russia are slated to begin meeting later Monday on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algiers, looking for ways to stabilise prices that have been depressed since 2014.

Pre-forum talks last week between OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and member Iran were bleak, with neither willing to commit to freezing production, sending prices plunging more than 3.0 percent on Friday.