15.02.201802:32:00UTC+00Oil Continues Rally as Saudi Reaffirms Commitment to Production Deal

Oil prices continued to add on to the gains from the prior session, driven up by a weak dollar and by Saudi Arabia's comments that it would prefer seeing an undersupplied market than to put an end to an agreement with OPEC and Russia to limit production.

U.S. WTI crude futures stood at $61.02 per barrel, up 42 cents or 0.7 percent from their last close, adding to a 2.4 percent increase in the prior session. Brent crude futures traded at $64.64 per barrel, 28 cents up or 0.4 percent higher, continuing Wednesday's 2.6 percent increase.

Prices rallied on the back of ongoing weakness in the greenback against other major currencies, further receiving support from the increasing stock markets, traders said. A weaker U.S. dollar tends to support consumption of dollar-denominated commodities as it makes fuel less expensive for nations using other currencies.

On a fundamental level, oil markets received support from comments by Saudi Arabia, the de-facto head of OPEC, expressing support for output cuts backed by the producer cartel and other producers including Russia since last year in an initiative to drive up prices and rebalance the market. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that if a little miscalculation in overbalancing the market will be acceptable and that they will be sticking with the policy to limit production throughout 2018.