Oil price up on Opec plan

Oil gained after Opec’s president said the group will hold informal talks in Algiers next month and predicted the current bear market would be short lived.

Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries are in “constant deliberations” on stabilising the market and oil prices are expected to rise in the latter part of 2016, according to a statement by Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar’s energy and industry minister and the group’s current president.

Brent crude for October settlement was 75 cents higher at $45.02 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at one stage yesterday.