Tokyo — Oil prices rose on Thursday after US crude and petrol stockpiles fell, but concern about whether Opec-led output cuts would be able to rein in a three-year glut continued to drag. The market largely shrugged off comments overnight from Iran’s oil minister that members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are considering deeper cuts in production. Brent crude futures were 4c higher at $44.86 a barrel at 2.19am GMT, after falling 2.6% in the previous session to their lowest since November last year. US crude futures were up 6c at $42.59 a barrel. On Wednesday, they settled lower at $42.53, after touching their lowest intraday level since August 2016. Since peaking in late February, crude has dropped about 20% with only brief rallies, completely erasing gains at the end of the year in the wake of the initial Opec-led production cut. Opec and other producers agreed to cut output by 1.8-million barrels a day from January for six months, subsequently ext...
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