WTI firm, albeit below $45.00, OPEC eyed

Crude oil prices are up smalls at the beginning of the week, recovering part of the ground lost after Friday’s significant pullback.

WTI looks to Algiers

The barrel of West Texas Intermediate has faded the initial spike to the boundaries of the $45.00 mark seen earlier in the Asian session, as a potential disappointment at the OPEC meeting in Algiers keeps weighing on sentiment.

In fact, the likeliness of a deal to freeze output between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers remains the key driver for crude oil in the near term, although the probability has dwindled significantly in recent weeks.

Apart from the OPEC meeting, the usual report on crude oil inventories by the API (Tuesday) and EIA (Wednesday) area also due ahead of the oil rig count by driller Baker Hughes (Friday).

WTI levels to consider

At the moment the barrel of WTI is gaining 0.72% at $44.80 and a breakout of $46.52 (high Sep.22) would aim for $47.75 (high Sep.8) and then $48.75 (high Aug.19). On the other hand, the next support aligns at $42.55 (low Sep.20) ahead of $41.10 (low Aug.11) and finally $39.19 (low Aug.3).