London — Oil prices edged up for a second day on Friday on expectations that a weekend meeting of the world’s top oil producers would demonstrate compliance to a global output cut deal, but a larger than expected rise in weekly US crude stocks capped gains. International benchmark Brent crude prices were up $1.30, or 2.4%, at $55.46 a barrel at 2.19pm GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading up $1.25, also 2.4%, at $52.62 a barrel. "Prices were pushed down a bit too far and hopes will rise that the Opec/non-Opec meeting this weekend will show that these producers actually give some proof that they cut production," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro. A weekend meeting in Vienna of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and some producers outside of the group, including Russia, will establish a compliance mechanism to verify producers are sticking to a deal to reduce output by 1.8-million barrels per da...
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