Oil futures settled higher on Monday, ahead of a decision by major oil producers later this week on crude output levels. It seems quite clear that traders are not expecting any action from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, together known as OPEC+, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda. “The group is clearly perfectly happy with price levels and don’t consider them the economic risk that other countries, like the U.S., do.” Erlam expects Thursday’s meeting to be “swift and consistent with the last,” and that OPEC+ will continue with its monthly oil production increases of 400,000 barrels per day. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery CLZ21, +0.25% rose 48 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $84.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural-gas prices, meanwhile, settled lower for a third consecutive session, with analysts citing forecasts for milder weather for the decline. December natural gas NGZ21, +2.51% fell 24 cents, or 4.4%, to settle at $5.186 per million British thermal units.
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