Oil prices rose this afternoon after the head of OPEC said that a cut in production by the cartel's members was likely when they meet next month.
The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for July delivery increased 35 cents per barrel to $26.59 in early deals.
New York's reference light sweet crude June contract was up 31 cents to $29.47 in out-of-hours electronic trading.
Both markets had been closed for public holidays yesterday. The renewed speculation came after OPEC President Mr Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah had said on Monday that members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were likely to agree to a production cut at the June 11th meeting in Qatar.
"We don't want to see this huge floating of oil, collecting dramatically and putting pressure on the oil price. We don't want to see ourselves in the position of 1999," when prices collapsed to 10 dollars a barrel on oversupply.
The cartel's central target of $25 per barrel for a basket of seven crude prices was a "very reasonable price", added Mr Attiyah, who is also Qatar's energy minister.