West Texas Intermediate futures for March delivery is currently at $29.11 (+0.24%), while Brent crude is at $32.35 (+0.53%) as initial optimism after Russia-Saudi meeting faded. Yesterday oil prices rose as much as 6% after Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela agreed to freeze output at January levels if other producers do the same. However, other producers may refuse to freeze output and undermine the agreement. Besides, many experts don't believe this agreement provides an efficient solution even if it works.
"In other words, this deal would simply maintain the excess supply that is now in place. This might be better than a further increase, but it is not the output cuts that some in the markets have been hoping for," Capital Economics said.