Oil up as Saudi energy minister commits to OPEC

Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday in Asia as newly appointed Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman hinted his commitment to production cuts.

US Crude Oil WTI Futures traded 0.5% higher to $58.12 by 11:42 PM ET (03:42 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures rose 0.4% to $62.85.

The gains came after Prince Abdulaziz said there will not be any radical change in the kingdom’s oil policy and a global deal to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day would be maintained.

He also noted that the OPEC+ alliance would be in place for the long term.

On the data front, the weekly report on US crude inventories from the American Petroleum Institute (API) is due later in the day. The API reported last week that stockpiles rose by 0.40 million barrels, though US government data, released a day later, showed a third-straight weekly draw.

In other news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons site was also in focus as the claim raised Middle Eastern tensions.

Netanyahu claimed that Tehran had been developing atomic arms at a facility in Abadeh, south of Iranian city of Isfahan.

“In this site, Iran conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.

The site was destroyed after Israel discovered it, the prime minister alleged. “They (Israeli intelligence) destroyed the site. They just wiped it out.”

In comments directed at Iranian officials, he added: “Israel knows what you’re doing, Israel knows when you’re doing it, and Israel knows where you’re doing it.”

Iran denied the Israeli leader’s accusation, according to Qatari state-funded media Al Jazeera.