Singapore — Oil prices rose by more than 1% in early Asian trading on Friday, pushed up by uncertainty over whether Opec would manage to agree a production increase at a meeting in Vienna later in the day. Brent crude oil futures were at $74.04 a barrel at 3.08am GMT, up 99c, or 1.4%, from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $66.49 a barrel, up 95c, or 1.5%. Opec, a producer cartel with top exporter Saudi Arabia as its de facto leader, is meeting together with some non-Opec members including top producer Russia at its headquarters in the Austrian capital to discuss output policy. The group started withholding supply in 2017 to prop up prices. Amid strong demand, the market has since tightened significantly, pushing up crude prices and triggering calls by consumers to increase supplies. Saudi Arabia and Russia are in favour of raising output. Other Opec-members, including Iran, have opposed this, resulting in a flurry of backdoor diplomacy ahead o...
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