Oil markets focus on Saudi (OPEC) pledge to end glut

Oil traded flat on Monday and a little bit up on Tuesday. Analysts over the last few days have warned investors of not to expect any huge surges in price over the coming weeks as reports of outages were offset by Iraq offering assurances to ramp up production to average out production.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 8 cents at $58.41 a barrel by 0437 GMT, after settling on Tuesday up 96 cents, or 1.7 percent. 

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was trading down 4 cents at $52.43.

A steady incline was observed in Oil prices reaching four week highs, after Saudi Arabia declared its commitment to continue production cuts to end supply gluts. Also, OPEC has signaled an extension to cut production through end of 2018. An extension is not a done deal at the moment, however, the statements from the OPEC officials continue to hint at an extension. 

United States crude stocks rose by more than 519,000 barrels last week against the analyst expectation for a decline of 2.6 million. Following the large drop in gasoline stockpiles, U.S. gasoline futures rose as high as $1.7383 per gallon, the most since Sept. 26.

In other news, Chinese oil demand could be stronger than the market expectations. The implications that China may be consuming more oil than the official numbers might be a blessing for oil markets, as oil prices struggle to cross the $55 mark and remain volatile.