NEW DELHI, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Brent crude oil futures rose on Friday as drawn-out Russia-Ukraine peace talks kept geopolitical risks elevated, while traders kept one eye on the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday for clues about potential output changes.
However, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were frozen after a system outage at exchange operator CME Group.
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Front-month Brent crude futures for January – which expire on Friday – rose 15 cents, or 0.24%, to $63.58 a barrel at 0738 GMT, after settling up 21 cents on Thursday. The more active February contract changed hands at $62.99, also up 15 cents.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude froze at $59.08 a barrel, up 43 cents, or 0.73%. There was no settlement on Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.
Both contracts are headed for a fourth straight monthly loss, the longest losing streak since 2023, as expectations for higher global supply weighed on prices.
Signs that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia might be close pushed oil prices down sharply earlier this week, but they have recovered over the past three sessions as negotiations dragged on.
Brent and WTI are each set to close this week with gains of more than 1%.
“While a final peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine could eventually pave the way for sanctions to be eased on Russian oil producers, increasing global supply, such an outcome still appears distant,” said Sugandha Sachdeva, founder of SS WealthStreet, a New Delhi-based research firm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that outline draft peace proposals discussed by the U.S. and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that if not, Russia would fight on.
Putin added that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow early next week.
“After several false dawns, participants are reluctant to position aggressively until concrete progress – or a breakdown materialises,” IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore said in a research note.
Oil prices have also been buoyed by rising market bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next month, potentially boosting economic growth and bolstering energy demand.
Reporting by Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Kevin Buckland and Christian Schmollinger
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